Trust is for Fools
by TheOstrichLord
Summary: We often make choices we are not prepared to live with. The story follows Ty Lee and Azula after the end of the war and how they deal with their complicated past. Can all wrongs be made right? (Better summary inside)
1. Prologue

**Authors Note: **Ok. So this is my first real multi-chapter story. I've had the idea in my head for weeks now but I've been struggling to put it into words. I recently read _Almost Isn't Good Enough_ by _Watevs15_ (I highly recommend it) and I saw that he/she had a VERY similar idea for a story as I did. So if anyone has read that story and notices that these two are similar, please know that I am not stealing ideas, I had these ideas before I read the other one. On another note, I have no idea where I'm going with this one, I just have some basic plans, so I'm very open to suggestions in reviews or PM's, especially when it comes to who the antagonist will be, cause I have no idea. I'm putting a lot of work into this one, I've even been reading up about schizophrenia for more knowledge on the subject (not pleasant). I know prologue chapters are usually just little teasers of what the story's going to be like, but this one is _really _long and it's really just a collection of flashbacks of things that happened before and during the shows, but the rest of the story is post-war, although it will most likely contain some flashbacks too. Future chapters will not be as long as this one. I know that the name _Trust is for Fools _is not the most creative name, but I don't gave a s***, it will stay like that until I think of something better. Just one more note. I know the Avatar wiki says that Azula and Ty Lee are supposed to be 14 but I just can't accept that. So in this story I say they were 15 when the show took place. I know it's only one year but it makes a big difference in my mind for some reason, so just roll with it. (I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender or any of it's characters)

**Summary: **Before the end of the war Ty Lee and Azula developed a romantic relationship but sadly it did not last long because of what happened at the Boiling Rock. Ty Lee goes to live on Kyoshi Island with the other warriors. For two years she tries to forget. To get on with her life. But eventually she's drawn back. Rated M just in case.

* * *

**Prologue**

A six years old Azula looked down at the silly girl laying in front of her. She was wearing pink from top to toe and her hair was tied into a long braid that fell down her back. This was not what the young princess had expected to see on her first day in the Royal Fire Nation Academy for girls.

"Are you alright?" She asked the other girl, who had sat up and started rubbing the back of her head.

"Yeah. I'm ok. I've had worse falls." The girl looked up at Azula, giving her a wide, goofy grin. Her big gray eyes shining like diamonds as the sunlight hit them.

"What was that you were doing anyway? It just looked like you threw yourself at the ground." It had been quite a funny scene actually, but Azula decided not to say that out loud.

"Oh. Umm..." The pink clad girls blushed. "Well, I was just practicing my cartwheeling. I'm usually much better than this." She said as she got up. "Im Ty Lee by the way. What's your name?" She extended her hand.

"I'm Azula." The princess shook Ty Lee's hand, a small smirk on her lips.

"Wow. You have the same name as the princess!" The would-be-acrobat jumped in excitement.

_She sure is thick. Though she's sort of funny. _Azula thought to herself as her smile grew wider. "Well that's because I _am _the princess. Daughter of prince Ozai and princess Ursa." She stated proudly.

Ty Lee's jaw dropped. She wasn't sure she'd ever even _seen_ royalty before, let alone talked with it. She had no idea how to act or what to say. She did the only thing she could think of. She got down on her knees and bowed down low, touching her forehead to the soft grass that made up most of the courtyards ground.

Azula was surprised. "Uhh. What are you doing?" She asked as she looked down at the girl kneeling in front of her. She had seen some people do this when they saw her grandfather, the Fire Lord, but no one ever bowed to _her_. Although they would someday, according to her father.

"I...I'm just...well. I'm sorry. I didn't know who you were Azu-I mean your highness." Ty Lee managed to talk without too much fault. She was blushing furiously so her face almost matched her outfit.

She felt someone lightly tap on her shoulder. "Get up. You don't have to do that." Azula said as she pulled her new friend up to her feet. She giggled when she saw how obviously embarrassed Ty Lee was.

"Hey. Do you think you could teach me to do that thing. What did you call it? Cartwheeling?" Ty Lee's face instantly lit up at the request.

"Sure thing. Ok. So you just have to..."

* * *

Ty Lee watched as her friend gracefully went through her bending exercises. It was beautiful. Orange flames with a hint of blue in the center, the amount of which had been growing in the three years she had known the princess.

Squinting her eyes to look at Azula's aura, the acrobat saw a swirling mix of colors like blue, purple, orange and gold. But out of all the rich colors, one little detail caught her eye. It were the little streaks of black that had been there since she first met her. Over the years they had slowly multiplied from a single speck of that awful color, into several streaks spread across her aura, like streaks of oil in otherwise clear water.

She had a pretty good idea of what they were, since every time Azula's mother scolded her for doing something bad, or her father told her what she did wasn't good enough, the streaks would momentarily grow bigger. _So it must just mean that she's sad. But nobody else has them, and I'm pretty sure other people get sad_ _too. _

"Ty, are you coming?" Azula's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. "Huh? Wha...Coming where?"

"By Agni, can't you remember anything?" The princess looked down at her sitting friend, a slightly annoyed smirk on her lips. "We were going to practice our cartwheeling, remember?"

"Ohhh right. Forgot about that. Ok, let's do it." She got up and started running towards the tree their other friend was sitting under. "Come on 'Zula!"

"How many times do I have to say this Ty? Its A-zula! With an A!" The firebender called back even though Ty Lee knew she enjoyed her nickname. They stopped running when they reached the tree where Mai was sitting. It was the best place in the courtyard to practice in the summer, since it was shaded by the tree.

Mai had become a part of their little group shortly after they started in the academy. She was one year older than both the other girls so she had already been there for a year. She was really smart. Almost as smart as Azula, the acrobat thought. They could talk for hours about things that she lost track of in only a few minutes. But even though they were intellectually compatible, Ty Lee didn't think Mai and Azula liked each other very much. Actually, the princess didn't seem to like anyone, apart from the little acrobat of course.

She started talking to the princess about a new trick she'd just learned where you would end the cartwheel with a back-flip. When Azula felt she had heard enough explanations she decided to try it. It went well until the it came to the jump itself. She tripped and fell flat on her back.

"Almost right 'Zula." Ty Lee said in the most cheerful voice she could muster because, for some reason, failing at this had caused one of the black streaks in Azula's aura to grow in size. _Why does this make her so sad? Nobody's perfect. _

"Ok. This is how it's supposed to go." She steadied her self before executing the cartwheel, followed by the flip, perfectly. Suddenly she felt strong hands on her back, pushing her.

"Ugh. Azulaaa!" She groaned up at the now laughing princess. After Azula helped her up, the acrobat noticed that her friends eyes were suddenly fixed on Zuko, who was walking by with their mother. Her eyes then move to look at Mai who was averting her gaze and blushing slightly.

"Hey Ty." The princess moved up to Ty Lee and started whispering in her ear.

The pink girl giggled. _This is going to be good._

* * *

"Hey 'Zula." The acrobat said happily as she ran up to her friend and hugged her.

The sun was setting over the capital of the Fire Nation. Normally Ty Lee wasn't allowed to play with Azula this late, but over a week ago they had planed a sleepover, so here she was. She was really excited. Sleepovers with Azula were the best. They'd stay up late playing board games, talking and sometimes they even snuck out and climbed to the roof of the palace. The view was of the city at night was amazing.

But tonight she wasn't just excited, she was a bit nervous. She didn't really know why, but she suspected it had something to do with the fact that Azula's mother, princess Ursa, had been banished only three days ago. Even though Azula acted like she didn't care, even going so far as using it to tease her brother, Ty Lee knew she had been really down since it happened. _I'll just be extra cheerful tonight then._

As usual, they stayed up talking and playing a few games of Pai Sho, even though they knew Azula would always win. However, the princess refused her friend's request to go to the roof tonight, saying that it was to cold outside. That wasn't true, but Ty Lee decided to just go with it.

They both fell asleep around midnight in the princess' huge bed, covered in crimson and black fabrics, ornate golden dragons sowed into the sheets and a large canopy of wooden bars and red velvet hanging over them.

About an hour after she fell asleep, Ty Lee woke up to a strange sound. Her mind was muddies at first, but as it started to clear she could tell the sound was coming from inside the bedroom. She looked to her left to find the shaking form of her friend, face buried in her pillow.

She was crying.

"Azula? A-are you alright?" She asked hesitantly, placing her hand on her friend's shoulder.

"She...she left. She left and she...didn't even say goodbye." Her speech was frequently interrupted by sobs. Now that she thought about it, Ty Lee realized that she had never seen Azula cry. She'd always seemed so strong, so confident.

"I know 'Zula. I know." She pulled the crying princess into her arm. They stayed like this for a while, Azula crying on Ty Lee's shoulders and the acrobat gently stroking her back.

"It's...all my fault...I'm a...monster." She was sobbing so hard at this point, Ty Lee was surprised she was able to form sentences at all. What surprised her even more though, was what the princess had just said.

"What are you talking about? How's it your fault?" In reality she knew very little of what had happened with Azula'a mother, no one did. But she suspected it had something to do with the death of the former Fire Lord, Azulon, and how Ozai was now on the throne.

"And you're not a monster. Why would you say that?" To the little acrobat, hearing her friend say she was a monster was just silly. She'd heard stories about all sorts of monsters. They were always these big, scary things with long claws and fangs and such. Looking down at the girl in her arms she didn't see anything like that.

"Because she said so..." Azula's sobs had faded, but she was still shaking and whimpering.

"Who?"

"Mother...she said I was a monster. And she...she left." She broke down sobbing again. Ty Lee cradled her in her arms and started rocking her back and forth like a baby.

"It's ok 'Zula. It's ok. I'm here. Ty's here. I'm not going to leave, I promise." She kept murmuring comforting words into her friends ear until she was sure the she'd fallen asleep.

"Goodnight 'Zula." She said as she wiped the tears from Azula's face and shortly after, she had fallen asleep as well.

* * *

_Ok. I have to be quick. Everything packed. Great. _The 13 year old girl dressed in pink strapped on the backpack she had been struggling to pack for about an hour, not knowing what she wanted to take with her. She climbed out the window, stopping to take one last look at her bedroom. _Ok. Maybe I'll miss it just a little bit._

She pulled her cloak closer to her body as she climbed out of the crater in in which the Royal Palace and homes of the richest noble families stood. It was the middle of the summer but the nights still got pretty cold. The cold wasn't the only problem though. She had decided not to bring a torch or oil lamp along to not draw attention to herself, but as a result she couldn't see a thing and tripped over almost every rock she passed. _Way to think ahead Ty._

As she stepped up onto the edge of the crater she could see distant lights surrounding the brightly colored circus tents. _Ok, there it is. No turning back now..._

"Where do you think you're going?" Ty Lee's thoughts were cut short by the icy tone of the voice coming from behind her. She turned around slowly. _Pleasepleasepleaseplease..._

_...pleasepleasepleaseDAMN! _She almost swore out loud when her eyes met those bright golden orbs that, despite their glow, managed to look even colder than the wind blowing in her face.

"Ohh. Ehh. Hey 'Zula. What are you doing here? I was just...well...I'm just out for...a walk." It was almost laughable how stupid that sounded, even to her, and she always believe everything. Judging by the look the princess was giving her, she agreed.

Azula was glaring at her, her golden eyes felt like they were piercing her soul. "You've been acting weird for the past few days. I was going to come ask you what was up. Guess I don't have to now."

They just stood there quietly for what felt like hours, at least to Ty Lee, until Azula finally broke the silence. "You're really going then?" She gestured in the direction of the circus tents.

"I...I have to. I just can't stay here anymore. I can't!" Ty Lee said as she struggled to swallow the lump rising in her throat. She had really been hoping to avoid this confrontation.

"You were just going to leave? No goodbye? _Nothing!_" The princess' brow furrowed as she shouted the last word. _Ok. She's mad. _

"I couldn't come to see you. I knew you'd try to stop me and...and I have to go." Clutching the straps of her backpack, she stomped her foot down to emphasize that she was completely serious. _I'm not letting anyone stop me. Not even her._

Azula's lips twitched into a snarl. "NO! You can't go! I order you to stay!" She raised her fists and quickly brought them down, sending blasts of blue fire on the ground, lighting the grass on fire.

_What? She can't do that. I can't stay here and be miserable just because of her. _The lump in her throat disappeared. Now _she_ was mad, and that was saying something.

"I'm sorry Azula. But I'm not staying here just because you tell me to. I'm not your servant. Goodbye." She spoke more harshly than she had ever done to the princess before, or anyone else for that matter. She turned in the direction of the distant lights and managed to take a grand total of one step before Azula's voice brought her to a halt once again.

"But...you promised." The voice wasn't cold or commanding as Ty Lee had expected, or rather, hoped. It would be much easier to leave if she was angry with her friend. But instead, the voice behind her sounded small and broken. The acrobat turned around once more to see what she hadn't seen in four years. Azula was crying. It wasn't like that time when they were nine. She wasn't convulsing with sobs, she didn't even let out a whimper, but the tears flowing freely down her face were evidence of her pain. "You said you wouldn't leave."

Ty Lee was speechless. Azula had never even mentioned what happened that night when they were nine, and in all honesty, the acrobat never thought she _would_. But here she was, bringing it up at the worst possible moment. She slowly approached the crying girl and carefully put her arm around her. "I'm sorry Azula. I really am. But we talked about this. You know how miserable I am here. It's really not good for my aura." Azula gave her a half-hearted chuckled and muttered. "Stupid aura."

Giggling, the acrobat leaned back and started wiping the tears of Azula's face the same way she did all those years ago. Azula had always been one of the only people she knew that actually believed her about her ability to see auras.

"The circus is leaving soon and I don't know when it'll be back. This could be my last chance to get away for a long time. I don't want to leave you, but I can't stay with my family. Do you get what I'm saying 'Zula?"

Looking shamefully down on the ground she had just scorched a few seconds ago, the princess admitted defeat. "Y-yeah. It's just...Mai's gone with her family to the Earth Kingdom and now you're...ugh. I'm sorry."

Putting her hand under Azula's chin and lifting her face up, Ty Lee kissed her friend on the cheek. "Thank you for understanding. And it's not like this is going to be the last time we see each other. I mean, you could come and visit the circus someday, or maybe we'll come back to the city soon. Who knows!" She said with a big, toothy grin, trying to be as reassuring as possible.

"I guess." The princess sighed and pulled away from her overly cheerful friend, wiping away the last remnants of her tears. "You should go then."

Before Azula could say anything else, her air supply was cut of by Ty Lee giving her a huge bear hug. When she finally decided to release her suffocating friend, the acrobat gave her another quick kiss on the cheek, a big goofy smile, and then she ran of down the side of the volcano, braid dangling behind her. "Bye 'Zula!"

_Yeah. Goodbye..._

* * *

"Ty Lee. Could that possibly be you?" Looking up from her upside down position, the acrobat saw a person who looked sort of like...

_No...freaking...way._

"Azula!" She gracefully rolled out of the handstand she had been practicing and ran over to hug her friend. "It's good to see you again!" This was truly a surprise. She hadn't seen the princess in almost two years. _She hasn't changed a bit._

That wasn't true, of course. The firebender, who had been about the same height as Ty Lee, now stood a few inches taller, and, although it was impossible to see through her clothes, her muscles were stronger and more defined after months of training. Her body had of course gone through other changes that followed that age. Her breast and hips were more prominent, though not as much as the acrobat's, but enough to give her a distinct feminine look. As an addition her face had lost much of it's baby fat.

"Please don't let me interrupt your...whatever you're doing." Rolling back into one of her stretching exercises that would make most people stare in awe, she looked up at her long-lost friend and waited for her speak again.

"I have a proposition for you." The princess said, looking at Ty Lee like they had seen each other only the day before. _She looks so uptight. _The acrobat thought to herself. _I guess I've missed a lot in the past couple of years._

"I'm hunting a traitor. You remember my old fuddy-duddy uncle, don't you?" She did remember him. She genuinely like General Iroh, even though she hadn't met him very often since he always preferred to spend time with Zuko over his niece.

"Oh yeah! He was so funny." This was not how Ty Lee had hoped their first meeting after all these years would go. To be honest, she felt a bit awkward. Normally she would be talking none-stop about every single thing she had done in the last two years, but she didn't really know _how_ to do it since Azula was acting so...different, like they were just casual acquaintances.

"I would be honored if you would join me on my mission." The princess said, raising her chin, looking very confident.

"Oh, I, uh, would love to." Ty Lee responded, not really sure how to answer this. She nimbly got back on her feet. "But the truth is, I'm really happy here. I mean, my aura has never been pinker!" _I'm sorry again, Azula._

"I'll take your word for it." The princess said, looking at her friend with no sign of anger or sadness like the pink clad girl had expected. _She...she's not mad?_

"Well, I wouldn't want you to give up the life you love just to please me." There was something off with the tone of Azula's voice as she said that, but Ty Lee dismissed it as just her imagination. "Thank you, Azula." And with that, the acrobat returned to her stretching, lifting her foot above her head and touching her toes in her fingers. She was quite content, thinking this had played out very well, completely oblivious to Azula's plans...

* * *

The sun had long since set over Ember Island so now the moon and stars reflecting off the water were the only sources of natural light, and would soon be the only ones at all since the little campfire they built on the beach was almost dead.

Mai and Zuko had left a few minutes ago, heading back to the beach house to _rest, _but Azula said she wanted to stay a little longer, and Ty Lee was quick to agree. She knew something was bothering the princess and she was going to wait until she was ready to talk about it.

It had taken a few weeks to get Azula out of the shell she was in, to break past the wall she had put between herself and everyone else, but Ty Lee managed it, and now they were closer than ever. Two years of being without friends had made the princess a bit colder and more distant than she used to be, courtesy of Ozai, but she let Ty Lee in again, and they were both happy for it.

They sat there for a while, Azula stared into the dying fire, and Ty Lee waited. Earlier the princess had reveled to their little group that the fact her mother thought she was a monster hurt her, she was quick to dismiss it as a small thing and in regards to Zuko and Mai, that was enough, but neither of them had been there all those years ago when Azula cried herself to sleep in the acrobat's arms, so neither of them truly understood how deeply wounded the princess was by this.

After about an hour of just sitting there, Azula finally spoke. "I really am a monster, aren't I?"

Ty Lee had been afraid of this. The black streaks in Azula's aura had been flaring since they left that party. "No 'Zula. You're not. You're beautiful."

The princess gave her a look of faint disgust. "Ohh really." The disbelief was thick in her voice.

"Yeah really." The acrobat got up and sat down right next to Azula, resting her hands on the princess' lap. "You're smart and strong and more beautiful than anyone I have ever seen. How could you _possibly_ be a monster?" Even though she knew Azula was really sad, she had to admit that she loved these close, intimate moments she got to share with the princess.

There were many reasons she liked it, the greatest one probably being her _feelings_ towards her friend. It had stared when they were little. Now that Ty Lee thought back to it, it didn't seem like much other than a stupid crush. But when she started travelling the Earth Kingdom with her, those feeling reappeared, and they had been growing stronger with every day that passed.

Of course she knew that her feelings were strictly forbidden. People who were attracted to those of the same sex were often met with prejudice, and even violence, and that was if you were of a lower class. It wasn't unheard of that families would disown their members for their inclinations, that was, if they were lucky. But even if all of that was put aside, being in love with the _crown princess _was just ridiculous.

Ty Lee didn't care though, she had come to accept her feelings, and now she could only hope that one day Azula would feel the same way.

"Ohh come on Ty! Don't play dumb with me. I know how I come off." Scowling, Azula crossed her hands over her chest and looked back into what was left of the little fire. "Like that boy at the party...ugh. One moment we're kissing and the next he's running of like a frightened owl-kitten."

Ty Lee was glad that Azula couldn't see auras, because her's had just turned a nasty shade of green. _What was she doing kissing that boy anyways._ Sure, she herself flirted with them from time to time, but that was just for fun. She never took it further than that. _  
_

Oblivious to her friend's thoughts, Azula kept talking. "Everybody always runs off, and those who don't only stay because they're to afraid to leave, or they want something from me." The black parts of her aura were now bigger than Ty Lee had ever seen them, she had to do something.

She leaned closer to the prodigy. "I'm not afraid of you. And I don't want anything from you either." She smiled.

"That's...different. You..." To her dismay, Azula felt that she was having a hard time speaking because of the lump in her throat. She hadn't cried in years, and that was not about to change.

The acrobat leaned in closer. "Why? Why is it different?" Their faces were so close now, she could feel the princess' breath on her face, their noses were almost touching.

"B-because..." Before Azula could say anything else her mouth was sealed by a pair of soft lips pressing against her own. Ty Lee couldn't believe she had actually found the courage to do that. _Well, no point in stopping now._

The princess was completely frozen. When Ty Lee kissed her, her eyes had shot wide open and seemingly every single muscle in her body tensed up. After staying like that for a few seconds, she realized that it wasn't an unpleasant feeling at all so she began to move her lips in response to her friend's.

_What? She's kissing me back? _The acrobat could honestly say that she had not expected this. She thought Azula would pull back immediately and shout at her, call her a freak or something. But she was actually kissing back. Ty Lee couldn't believe her good fortune.

When they finally broke off the kiss for air neither of them said anything. For a while they just sat there, panting, and looking at each other, their faces unreadable. Finally, Ty Lee broke a smile. The princess shyly smiled back. _Aww, she's so cute when she's nervous, although I probably shouldn't tell her that._

"Ty? What was that for?"

"Did you like it?" The acrobat replied, an impish grin playing on her lips.

"Ohh, I don't know." Azula's tone was laced with sarcasm. "I didn't really get enough time to appreciate it."

Her grin growing bigger, Ty Lee leaned closer to her friend. "Well, I'll let you have another go then." And just like that, their lips were locked again.

_Best night ever..._

* * *

It was some weeks since that fateful night on Ember Island, and Azula and Ty Lee had been having similar_ incidents_ as often as they could since then, discreetly of course. They both knew the risk, knew what would happen if they were to be caught, but when they were together all that just sort of faded away. Even though they were doing a pretty good job sneaking around, the acrobat had a feeling that Mai might suspect something. It wasn't unlikely she did, her and Azula always seemed to know everything. But the point was, everything had been going great and Ty Lee had never been this happy. But in this exact moment, everything was falling apart.

"No _you_ miscalculated! You should have feared me more!" For as long as Ty Lee had known Azula she'd never seen the princess this angry, nor had she expected to. Of course she knew that her friend had some problems, but completely snapping like this was so unlike her.

Azula dropped into a bending stance. _Oh no oh no. What is she...By Agni, she's going to..._

Mai also dropped into a combat stance, drawing one of her knives. _Ohh. Ahh. What do I do? What do I do? Azula's going to kill her. I...I have to do something!_

Azula had almost completed her kata and Ty Lee knew that she didn't have any more time to think. So she acted. _I'm so, so sorry 'Zula..._

* * *

"I don't care, Mai! I want to see her." For almost an hour now, Mai had been trying to talk Ty Lee out of going to the mental hospital, but the new Kyoshi warrior would not budge.

She had met the Kyoshi warriors in the prison she'd been thrown into. At first they didn't trust her at all, not that strange considering she was one of the people that got them captured in the first place, but after a while they started warming up to her and eventually she'd been invited to become one of them. She was delighted by this, and of course accepted. But before she could go anywhere, she had to go see the princess. _Well...I guess it's ex-princess now. _

After Zuko was crowned Fire Lord, one of the first things he'd done was to strip his sister of all titles and have her sent to Kuang Mental Hospital, which was on an island not too far from the capital city, took about an hour to get there by the ferry.

"Look Ty. I know you care about her, so did I. But the Azula you know isn't alive anymore. She's gone." Mai said in her usual monotone voice. Neither of them had actually seen the princess since the Boiling Rock_, _but they had both heard detailed descriptions from Zuko and Katara. Losing the fight against her brother and the waterbender had triggered the breakdown that had, apparently, been building up inside her for the past few weeks. She had been reduced to a screaming and crying wreck, not responding to anyone with anything other than violence.

"I know you may not care about her anymore, but I do. She's still my friend and I'm going to see her, that's final!" Ty Lee's voice wasn't angry, just a little irritated, but considering how bubbly and happy she always was it was enough to convince Mai she was serious.

They took the ferry only a half hour later. Although Mai had firmly stated she had no interest in seeing her former friend, she didn't want Ty Lee to go alone.

After sitting there in silence for about fifty minutes, their destination finally came into view. Kuang Mental Hospital was a large, imposing structure, positioned on a rather small, lifeless island. It was a tower of smooth white marble, constructed by earthbenders long before the war even started. The afternoon sun cast the shadow of the building on the small pier the ferry landed on, giving the impression that the day had grown shorter.

They spent the short walk up to the tower as they spent the boat ride, in silence. But when they reached the front door, Mai put her hands on the acrobat's shoulders. "Are you sure you want to go through with this?"

Ty Lee nodded firmly, wanting to hide that her voice would must likely crack when she spoke, because for some reason, the closer she got the place Azula was being kept, the more she felt like bursting into tears.

The tower was built in two layers. The outer, thinner one was a singular hallway that spiraled all the way to the top of the building. There were only doors on the left wall because all the rooms in the hospital were in the inner layer. This unique design was enough to momentarily distract Ty Lee from the meeting she had been dreading for days now.

Walking through the hall, she was surprised to see how many people worked here, the number of white dressed doctors and equally many guards was much greater than she had expected. She knew she shouldn't be that surprised. After all, this institution was one of many that Zuko decided needed more funding and staff after the war, considering the number of people left scarred by a hundred years of constant fighting.

After walking for quite some time, most likely nearing the top of the structure, they stopped in front of an iron door that, unlike the others, had imperial firebenders stationed on each side. _Ugh. Those skull-masks always creep me out._

Mai wordlessly nodded at them and they immediately opened the door, already knowing the face of the would-be Fire Lady. The door led to a much smaller, straight hallway. It didn't go far in, only about ten feet or so, but at it's end there was another door, made of thick steel and bolted to the wall. Ty Lee started quivering, becoming more unsure about this decision with every step she took.

"My Lady." One of the imperial firebenders stopped in front of Mai as they reached the door. "We will have to go in first and restrain the prisoner. Standard safety measures." His voice echoed within his helmet. Mai gave another silent nod and the guards got ready to enter the cell.

Ty Lee just barely managed to keep her knees from giving when the guards entered the cell. She couldn't see the ex-princess, in fact she couldn't see anything of the cell. _It's so dark in there..._

A few seconds after the guards entered the cell though, it's darkness was replaced with a brilliant blue light. It would have been beautiful if it wasn't accompanied by bone-chilling screams. It didn't even sound human. More like some enraged beast. One of the guards shouted commands at the others. Something about getting a muzzle on her. But Ty Lee didn't hear any of it over the anguished screams and cries coming from her oldest and dearest friend. _Ohh no. What's happened to you 'Zula. What have they...what have _I_ done._

"Ty?" Her head snapped up at the mention of her name. Mai was giving her a questioning look. The Kyoshi warrior looked around, discovering she had taken a few steps away from the scene. _What was that sound._ _There! There it is again. _It took her a moment to realize that the sounds she was hearing were her own choked sobs. Time seemed to slow down. It was all too much. Azula's screams, the guards shouting, Mai's pitying look and piled on top of that were childhood memories that had suddenly started to fill her mind. She couldn't take it anymore.

She ran.

Rushing down the spiral hall, she knocked down about three people that weren't quick enough to get out of her way. It wasn't on purpose, but the wetness in her eyes blurred her vision, and she just needed to get out of there.

She didn't stop running until she was outside the hospital, at which point she fell down to her knees, buried her face in her hands and started sobbing so hard she thought she might fall apart, literally. She must have stayed there for quite some time because after a while she felt a thin hand on her shoulder.

Mai sat down next to her, sneering when she realized she had just sat down on a dirt road in the new gown Zuko had bought for her. Ty Lee knew her friend wasn't really good with the whole _comforting_ thing, but at least she was trying.

"Ty Lee. I know you really care about Azula and I know you want to help her, but you can't." The would-be Fire Lady put her arm around her friends shoulder. "Azula's gone and what you saw up there, that's all that's left. Ty, are you listening?" Ty Lee nodded, fearing that talking might only come out as unintelligible weeping. "You need to go with Suki and the others to Kyoshi Island and move on with your life. Understand?"

"Y-yeah." That was all she was able to say.

The next day she said goodbye to Mai, Zuko and Aang, who had warmed up to her instantly after he hear she _changed sides._ After saying her goodbyes she got on a ship with the rest of the painted warriors and set off to what was to be her new home. She put up a good front, acting like the bubbly happy girl she usually was, but when she was finally alone in her quarters the floodgates opened and she couldn't stop crying. This went on for the remainder of the two week trip from her homeland to Kyoshi Island. To her new life.

_I'm sorry Azula..._

* * *

Wow. That took AGES to write. Seriously...changing so rapidly from one scenario to another turned out to be much harder than I expected. As a result I think that some parts of this chapter are a bit rushed and not really good enough, but that might just be me. I don't know how regularly I will be posting new chapters for this story, so don't hold your breath if it goes a while without an update. Also, I'm wondering if everybody got that whole "_nobody's perfect_" thing I put in there? And I apologize for having such a small part of this seen from Azula's POV, but I need to practice writing Ty Lee. I hope you enjoyed this _little _prologue and I can assure you, there's a lot more to come.

Peace out.


	2. Chapter 1: Nightmares

**_Hello again. Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all! I am sorry that it took this long to write this chapter, it really shouldn't have considering how short it is, but I have just had my first experience with writer's block and let me tell you something...it's AWFUL! But don't let me stall too much. On you go...read!_**

* * *

**Trust is for Fools**

**Chapter 1: Nightmares**

The sun rose over the horizon, casting a warm orange glow off the completely still surface of the ocean. The light sea-breeze rustled the leaves of the forest slightly and the bird had awoken and started their normal routine of singing and gathering food. All in all, it was a beautiful morning on Kyoshi island. But it's beauty was lost one some people.

"AAAHHH..." Ty Lee awoke with a shout, covered in sweat, her soft green covers drenched with it. It took her a few seconds to figure out where she was. She sat up in her small bed and rested her face in her open palms.

"Fuck," she muttered to herself as she started wiping the beads of sweat of her face. A few years ago she never would have said something like that, but after two years of living on an island with people her parents would have referred to as _peasants_, she'd started to pick up some of their habits, and even so she only ever swore like that when she was alone.

She puller her cover off and sat on the edge of the bed. "This has got to stop." It had been happening about every other night for the two years she'd been living on Kyoshi Island. She'd have horrible nightmares and wake up screaming, to find that the only thing to worry about was the fact that she had to change her bed covers because of all the sweat. She rarely remembered the details of what she dreamt, only that it always involved the same person, those same golden eyes, that same voice.

Shaking her head, she got up and walked over to her small counter and started picking out things for breakfast. It had taken some time adjusting to life on the small Earth Kingdom island, but she had never been a helpless person, so it wasn't really a problem. There was only one thing she didn't like about it, the colors. Everywhere you looked there was green, brown or beige. No sign of anything remotely pink for miles.

Halfway through making herself breakfast she got a strange feeling something was out of place. Looking around to see if she had forgotten about something, she noticed that the shadow her bed cast on the floor was smaller than usual. _Wait...no._ She rushed to look out the window. The sun was almost as high up in the sky as it got in the summer. She'd overslept...again. _No no no. Not again! _

She quickly removed the small pot of porridge she had been making off the furnace and started getting dressed. She'd gotten used to the armored kimono the Kyoshi Warriors were required to wear, although she preferred lighter outfits. She hastily put on her warrior's make-up and ran out the door. Running through the small village, she was met with a sea of friendly faces, "hello's" and "good morning's". The inhabitants of the island had taken the cheerful girl in with open arms. Everybody seemed to like her. People smiled and greeted her when she walked by and she'd even been invited on a few dates. Those boys were sweet and all, but she just couldn't bring herself to get romantically involved with anyone, at least not yet.

After a two minute run through the village she reached the dojo. She steadied herself and stepped inside. "Well girls, look who decided to join us," Suki said mockingly as she noticed Ty Lee step in, the rest of the warriors stopped what they were doing and giggled at their leaders remark. Ty Lee blushed under her white face-paint and rubbed the back of her neck. "Heh. Sorry."

"Girls. Continue the exercise, I'm going to have a little talk with Ty." The girls returned to their sparring, while Suki walked into the next room with Ty Lee, who was smiling apologetically. She slid the door close so they could have some privacy.

Suki had been the last of the Kyoshi warriors to fully accept Ty Lee, the acrobat was invited to join their ranks for the sole reason that the others had pestered their leader until she finally allowed it. She later revealed to Ty Lee that the reason for this was that as the leader of the warriors captured during the war she had been singled out and tortured for information, in fact, Azula had personally supervised it. It wasn't hard to see why Suki would resent one of the people responsible for this, even if Ty Lee had no knowledge of it.

"Ty Lee, this is the third time this week you've been late for practice. What am I supposed to do with you?" Suki wasn't mad. Ty Lee had told her about her problem, and as it turned out, Suki wasn't unfamiliar with the subject. Strangely enough, they were both having night-terrors involving the same person, though for very different reasons.

"I know Suki. I'm sorry. I just can't help it." The acrobat hung her head in shame.

"Look, I have an idea," Suki said and Ty Lee looked back up at her leader. "What kind of idea?"

"Well," Suki reached into her pocket and pulled up a small letter. "A messenger hawk arrived last night. It's from Zuko and Mai." Ty Lee's face lit up. It had been weeks since she'd last heard anything from her gloomy friend. "Ooh! What does it say?"

Suki chuckled lightly at Ty Lee's sudden enthusiasm. "Well, it didn't really say anything. Only that they were inviting the two of us to the Fire Nation so they could tell us something. Apparently it's important enough to make us take a two week trip for them to say it in person." There was a slight annoyance in her voice now.

"Ooooh. Can we go? Can we, can we, can we?" Ty Lee was practically jumping with excitement. Laughing at her bubbly friend's childlike behavior, Suki nodded. "Yeah. That's what I was about to suggest. I know you've been having trouble sleeping lately and to be fair, so have I. I think we could both use a vacation. So when you get home from the practice today I want you to start packing."

Suki just barely managed to jump back as her friend attempted to give her a hug. In the past two years she'd learned never to let Ty Lee hug her when she was overexcited. "Ty, we talked about this. Self restraint." She smiled.

"Heh, right. Sorry," the acrobat apologized, but nothing could wipe away the huge grin that was now plastered onto her face.

"Oh and Ty? When we get back in there," Suki gestured at the door leading to the training area, "could you act like I was scolding you for being late. I can't look like I'm going soft or everyone will start sleeping in."

"Yeah, sure thing, _Captain _Suki." Ty Lee gave an over dramatic salute.

* * *

It was approaching nighttime on Kyoshi Island, the sun was going down, turning the clouds near the horizon red and if you looked hard enough you could see tiny stars up in the sky. But just like that morning two days ago, some people were too busy to notice this.

_Ok. Let's see. Is this enough. Wait, maybe I should just buy clothes when I get there instead of taking it with me, but can I afford that? _The bubbly acrobat had been spending the last one and a half hour packing for her journey. It had proven to be a much bigger challenge than she expected. _Suki's probably waiting for me at the docks._

Eventually she managed to pack a selection of clothes she was _somewhat _happy with. Grabbing it, she rushed out the her door, an act that she was beginning to become all too familiar with, and headed to the small docks just outside the village. She was going to miss her little wooden house, but the thought of going back to her homeland after all this time was just to good to pass up.

She was also very excited to see Mai and Zuko again, she hadn't seen them for a few months. The Kyoshi warriors had been hired as extra security for a diplomatic meeting between Zuko and Earth King Kuei in Ba Sing Se. They obviously hadn't had much time to talk then, what with the Fire Lord and his wife having to attend horribly long meetings and Ty Lee constantly having to either stand guard or patrol some area, but the time they had managed to spend together had been great.

As Ty Lee suspected, Suki was already standing at the pier when she got there. Her leader raised an eyebrow when she saw her luggage. The acrobat was carrying two huge suitcases and wearing a gigantic travel-backpack. Seeing her small friend carrying all that weight was nothing short of comical and she quickly found that she was having a hard time not smiling.

"What? Ooh, so I overdid it just a little," Ty Lee said, smiling along with her friend.

They boarded to large Fire Nation ship laying by the docks. After the war ended the huge Fire Nation fleet, now rendered useless by the lack of enemies, was converted into a public means of transportation over sea. This particular ship made regular trips between Kyoshi Island and the Fire Nation Capital, bearing passengers and supplies. Just looking at it's metal surface fueled Ty Lee's homesickness.

"Hello ladies," the captain of the ship, Wei Chan, greeted the two warriors as they stepped on deck. They'd met him a few times before, once they even searched his ship for a stowaway. He was an elderly man that once used to serve in the navy. He had a long gray mustache and matching hair. But he was in surprisingly good shape for his age, with wide strong shoulders and fairly unwrinkled skin. But above all else, Ty Lee remembered him for being nice. She'd met many soldiers and commanders in her lifetime and most of them were rude and insensitive. But the captain was very friendly.

"That looks heavy miss Ty Lee, would you like me to help you?"

Ty Lee smiled warmly at him. "Nah. I've got it. But thanks."

She carried her bags down to the quarters she'd been assigned and dropped down onto the bed. It wasn't particularly comfortable, but it would have to do. Her mind started to wonder and in her head she was already in the Fire Nation. The places she wanted to go while she was there, what clothes she wanted to buy, what people she wanted to see...

_Should...should I go see her?_

Those were her last thoughts before she fell asleep, fully dressed laying on the covers of her bed.

* * *

_She was standing in one of the many courtyards of the Fire Nation royal palace. Everything was a bit blurry though. She stopped wondering what it was when she saw there was a person sitting under the tree near the turtle-duck pond. Black hair tied into a topknot, lean but strong form, golden eyes like pieces of gold in contrast to her pale skin._

_"Azula!" sha called out to the princess as she ran over to where she was sitting. Plopping down next to her friend, she hugged her as tightly as she could. "I'm so happy you're ok," she whispered._

_Prying the strong hands off her body, Azula gave her a look of slight confusion, "Well of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?"_

_Calming down, the pink clad girl rested her hands in her lap. "Well, because of that whole 'going against the Avatar without bending' thing. I still think that was way too risky." When the princess had told her what she planned to do on the day of Black Sun, Ty Lee had been mortified, begging Azula to stay away from the fighting, but she wouldn't be swayed._

_Smirking, the princess leaned back, resting on her elbows, "I told you there wasn't anything to worry about."_

_"Well, I'm just glad you're alright," Ty Lee leaned in and quickly touched her lips to Azula's._

_Jerking her head back, the bending prodigy hissed at her, "Ty Lee! Not in public. Are you insane?"_

_"No silly," the acrobat giggled and poked her friend's nose "I'm not that stupid. Most of the guards and servants are out helping to repair stuff that was destroyed in the attack. There's nobody around to see me doing stuff like this." she leaned in for another kiss. Azula seemed to calm down and this time she didn't pull back, but reciprocated, moving her lips along with Ty Lee's._

_Suddenly something didn't feel right. She couldn't tell what it was, but Ty Lee had this strange feeling. Then it happened. She felt like she was falling. She screamed, but when she looked around, she didn't seem to be falling at all. But the courtyard had disappeared though. There was literally nothing around her. Just sheer blackness, but Azula was still there, however she was slowly moving away from her._

_"Azula?" Ty Lee was really frightened. She got up and started walking towards her friend who was now in a kneeling position, but with every step she took, Azula moved further away. All of a sudden, the princess started crying and screaming in pain. "AZULA!" Ty Lee started sprinting towards her but, same as before, she only moved further away, her form starting to fade into the endless darkness surrounding them. _

_In the distance, Ty Lee was sure the princess was calling her name. Her eyes filling with tears as she called back, she kept running in the direction Azula had faded into. She didn't know what was going on, but she could find out later, all he felt now was the need to help her friend..._

* * *

"Azula..." Ty Lee sat up as quickly as she could. Everything was suddenly different. She was sitting on a bed in a small room with metal walls and a small torch hanging from the ceiling. _It was only a dream._

Actually, the first part of it had been a very vivid memory, from a time when everything seemed to work out. Before the nightmares, before she lost her...

Even though she knew it hadn't been real she still had that lingering feeling, that thought in the back of her mind. She had to help Azula in any way she could.

_I have to see her..._

_I have to save her..._

* * *

**_Ok. I just realized that I have no experience with writing chapters like this. All the normal stuff, so little angst, just basic human interaction. It's infuriating! I know I didn't make much happen here, but I promise, it will later on. Now, I don't like some parts of this particular chapter. It was taking me a long time to write so I feel I may have rushed through some scenes, like the short conversation (if you could call it that) with the captain, and not made them as good as they could have been. I also feel that the ending was a bit forced,, but I want to post this today, I can fix it later. I know that it might have been a bit strange to make Ty Lee say 'fuck' but I just thought "You know what? This is rated M, I can do whatever I want. So I just went for it. I will try to add a new chapter before New Years, since I'm going to spend it in a cabin away from a computer, but I make no promises. Well, that's all for now. Happy holidays and such..._**


	3. Chapter 2: Voyage of Memories

**_Ok, so, I would have updated sooner but I haven't had access to the internet for days. But now that I'm back I have a question for you all: Are you guys for real? You actually like the story so far? After every line I write I thing "Man, I shouldn't be doing this." But I read your reviews and just...wow. Well, if you want to keep reading then I won't stop you._**

_**Warning:** This chapter contains some sexual material. If you cannot bring yourself to read it, skip it._

* * *

**Chapter 2: Voyage of Memories**

The sounds coming from below when the waves crashed on the hull of the ship was very calming, Ty Lee thought. She was standing near the bow of the ship, staring at the seemingly endless ocean.

The closer they got to the Fire Nation, the longer and warmer the days got. They had been sailing for just over a week and the acrobat was finally comfortable wearing her pink belly shirt and matching baggy pants outside. When she had looked at herself in the mirror she'd realized she looked just like herself two years back, when she was been travelling with her friends. There were of course subtle differences, like the little dark bags under her eyes, but the similarities were far greater. She almost hadn't grown at all in height in the past two years and her body had matured and reached a beautiful feminine form quite early in her teens, so that hadn't changed. Her face even managed to keep its round features despite the loss of baby fat.

She had made the decision to go and see Azula when she got to the Fire Nation, and she wasn't about to go back on it, but with every passing day she grew anxious. _What's she going to say when she sees me? What am I going to say? Ooh, this is going to be horrible._

For the past couple of years, every time she started reminiscing about how things used to be like between her and the princess she'd try to block it out and think about something else, but now...

Now that was impossible.

* * *

_It was nearly night-time in the Fire Nation and most people in the Imperial Citadel had retreated to their homes. It was perfect, nobody was around to spot her._

_The young acrobat quickly made her way through the streets, making good use of structures that had been destroyed during the day of Black Sun to remain undetected. She eventually reached the walls of the Royal Palace. Looking around to make sure she was alone, she started to carefully climb the wall. She had done this a few times before, she knew it was a dangerously high fall if she lost her grip but she wasn't a person who fell often, otherwise she wouldn't be a very good acrobat, now would she._

_After a few minutes of climbing she finally reached her destination. She swung onto the small balcony, straightened her clothes out a bit and then proceeded to knock three time on the door. She heard someone quickly move around inside before it slowly opened._

_"Why, Ty Lee. What are you doing here?" the princess smirked and leaned against the door frame. She was wearing a thin red silk robe with a gold trim, it was wrapped tightly around her body, showing of her slight curves. Her hair wasn't tied into her usual topknot, but hung freely down her back and shoulders._

_Ty Lee matched her friends smirk before responding. "Just let me in already, it's freezing out here." Azula nodded and moved out of the way, gesturing for the acrobat to enter. It was much warmer inside the Royal's bedroom than Ty Lee had expected. Granted, Azula was a firebender, but the acrobat still thought it would be uncomfortable to go to sleep in such heat._

_"So," Azula rested her hands on her hips, still smirking. "Why _are_ you here, Ty?"_

_Ty Lee grinned impishly. "Ooh you know, I was feeling kinda lonely. I thought I'd just pop in and say hello."_

_Slowly stepping closer to her friend, the princess' smirk grew bigger. "Well then," she leaned in an caught Ty Lee's lips with her own. After a few seconds of an unusually tender kiss, Azula pulled back. "Hello."_

_They kissed again, wrapping their arms around each other. Ty Lee ran her hands through the princess' hair, then moved them down her back, finally settling on her hips. Azula started walking backwards, pulling the pink clad girl with her towards the large bed, never once breaking the kiss. The fell back, but Azula made sure that when they landed, she was laying half on top of her Ty Lee._

_Ty Lee's heart was pounding, and her stomach felt like it was full of small butterflies. They'd done the kissing before, a lot of it in fact, but she wasn't sure how far Azula intended to take it this time. Not that she had any objections, she would do anything for her princess._

_As the kiss intensified, the girl's hands started to get more adventurous. Ty Lee experimented with resting her hands on the princess' bottom or lightly cupping her breasts through her robe, while Azula snuck one hand under the acrobat's shirt and ran it over her slim yet strong stomach. _

_After a few minutes that felt like eternity, Ty Lee concluded that she had been right before, it was way to hot in that room. She removed her hands off the princess' body and instead put them to work in removing her own shirt. When Azula saw this she smiled seductively, and a bit hungrily, and started helping her friend, after the shirt was gone they were quick to pull off the baggy pants as well, leaving Ty Lee wearing only her undergarments and __breast-bindings. _

_"Hey!" Ty Lee whined, "This isn't fair." Azula raised an eyebrow as she looked down at her pouting lover. "What do you mean?"_

_"Well," the acrobat's pout turned into an impish grin, "You get to see me like this, but you're still fully dressed." _

_The princess sighed with what seemed to be mixed annoyance and relief. "Very well then." Azula raised herself up to her knees and moved so that she was in between Ty Lee's slightly parted legs. "Let's remedy that, shall we." She loosened her robe and let it slowly slide down her shoulders. They both took a few seconds to admire each other's bodies before Azula dived down for another hungry kiss. The acrobat struggled to keep up with the princess, who seemed to have become much more enthused by getting a good look at her poorly dressed friend._

_Her mouth and hands were everywhere. She kissed Ty Lee's mouth, moved down to her jawline and even went as far as nipping at her collarbones. Her hands moved over the contortionists body, grazing her tones legs and cupping and slightly squeezing her breasts, making Ty Lee moan in delight. This was even better than she'd thought it would be.  
_

_She gasped loudly as Azula's hand unceremoniously slipped town the front of her undergarments._

_The rest of the night faded into a blissful blur..._

* * *

_When Ty Lee came to the next morning she was greeted by an unfamiliar sensation. There was an unusual warmth surrounding her, it felt great. She slowly opened her eyes, thanking Agni for the room being dark enough so it didn't hurt her eyes. She looked to her side to see the sleeping form of her childhood friend-turned-lover, who's arms were loosely wrapped around her._

_"Hey sleepy-head," she whispered into the princess' ear as she poked her nose._

_Azula wrinkled her nose and slowly opened her eyes and looked to her side at the round face of the acrobat. "Morning," she smiled lazily._

_"Last night was amazing 'Zula." Ty Lee whispered as she tightened their embrace, wanting to never let go. This moment was complete perfection, she wished it would never have to end. "I love you," she didn't even have time to consider staying quiet before the words slipped past her lips._

_As soon as she spoke those words she felts Azula tense up in her arms. Ty Lee knew that her friend wasn't really normal, she had quite a few issues, one of which had to do with letting people close to her. But the acrobat understood, really, she did. "It's ok 'Zula," she sighed and gently put her hand on the princess' shoulder. "You don't have to say anything back." The only response Azula could give was to smile thankfully._

_Suddenly there was loud knock on the door. "Princess Azula?" a deep masculine voice called through the large, decorated door. "I have a message for you from the Fire Lord!"_

_The girls simultaneously jumped up. "Don't come in!" Azula called, obviously __panicking, "I'm...not dressed." This would only buy them a few minutes at best, but at least it was something. "Quick Ty Lee, get in the wardrobe," the princess hissed. Ty Lee knew better than to disobey, not that she wanted to. She hurried across the room, grabbing her pink pile of cloths from the floor, and carefully closed the wardrobe so it didn't make a sound. She heard some muffled conversation between Azula and the guard while she was getting redressed, and soon after she heard the door to the bedroom close. She stepped out of the over-sized wardrobe and saw that the princess had started to put on her black royal armor. "My father wishes to speak to me," she said, her voice returning to her usual commanding tone. "You'll have to sneak out of the window again."_

_"O-okay 'Zula," the acrobat's voice was barely above a whisper. She hated it when amazing moments like that were replaced by the cruel reality that the two of them weren't supposed to be together._

_The princess looked over her shoulder, frowning when she saw the obviously displeased face of the acrobat. "Don't look at me like that. What was I supposed to do? Let him walk in on us? We have to keep this a secret. You know that," she'd stood up and walked over to Ty Lee, placing her hands on the pink girl's shoulders._

_"I know we do," Ty Lee's eyes were starting to fill with tears at this point. Azula had always told her she was too over-emotional. "I just wish we didn't have to, you know."_

_The princess sighed and moved one of her hands up the cup Ty Lee's cheek. "I know." Her touch was gentle and her voice had lost its sharpness. "Look," she said, lifting the acrobat's face up so that their eyes met. "I have to go and speak with my father, I don't know how long it's going to take. Why don't you come back around noon and we can hang out."_

_Ty Lee's pout quickly turned into a thankful smile. "Alright 'Zula." She wiped away her forming tears with her pink __sleeve and then hugged the princess. It wasn't as comfortable hugging someone wearing armor as it was when they were only wearing cloths, or nothing at all, but it was better than no hug at all. She pulled back, stopping for a second to kiss her lover on the lips one last time. "Bye 'Zula. See you at noon." _

She_ made her way out to the balcony, taking a moment to admire the beautiful sunrise, and then made her way back down the large palace wall. _

* * *

Ty Lee sighed. The memory was so vivid, like it had only happened yesterday. But it had been two years and so much had changed, not necessarily for the better.

She looked ahead at the open sea. It was early in the morning and the sun was rising, casting a warm glow over the world. It was so alike the sunrise from all those years ago, but somehow, it had lost its beauty. It just looked dull now. An unwelcome reminder of a lost past, of what could have been.

Silent tears fell down her cheeks, dripping down onto the metal surface she stood on. She'd tried fighting it at first, but now she had come to terms with it. She needed to accept her past if she intended to confront the fallen princess.

She heard footsteps on the metal behind her. She had a sneaky suspicion as to who it was. "Hey," a familiar voice said in a friendly tone. "How are you holding up?"

Quickly turning around and putting on the biggest smile she could, the acrobat replied, "I'm great, silly! Why would I be anything else?"

Suki didn't look convinced. Crossing her arms over her chest and raising an eyebrow, the leader of the Kyoshi warriors gestured at her friend's face. "Well, for one thing you're crying."

Ty Lee's smile dropped instantly, most likely revealing how false it was. She brought her hand up to her face to find it was streaked with tears. "Damn it," she whispered as she turned away from her sympathetic-looking friend and started wiping her face dry. She felt Suki rest her hand on one of her shoulders. "Do you want to talk about it?"

She _did _want to, but bringing up the subject of Azula to Suki probably wasn't a good idea, but instead of just saying 'no', being the way she was, hating lies and having to lie to people, she decided to tell Suki just that. "I do want to talk about it. But I don't think you'd get it Suki. I'm sorry."

The acrobat then felt both of Suki's hands on the sides of her arms, turning her around to face her. "Ty, I'm your friend. What good am I if you can't even talk to me about stuff?" Suki's smile was reassuring, but Ty Lee saw a flicker of hurt in her face as well, making the guilt she was feeling rise to a whole new level.

"Alright," the usually cheerful girl drew a deep breath. "It's Azula."

As soon as Ty Lee spoke that name, her friends attempt at a happy look dropped and the acrobat was sure her face lost some color. It seemed to take a few moments for the words to completely set in with Suki, but eventually she came to. "What about her."

"Well," Ty Lee wasn't sure how to go about this. She knew what Suki thought of Azula, she knew what had happened during the war. _Aaaahhh, I'll just say it..._

"I miss her."

"You what?" Suki's voice wasn't hostile, but it definitely wasn't happy.

"Look, I know what you think of her, okay." The two of them had never talked about the princess to one another, and Ty Lee knew that it was for a very good reason. "But you didn't know her. She really wasn't that bad, she was ju..."

"Not that bad!" Suki hissed back at her. "Ty Lee, she _tortured _me! She killed countless people in the war, directly or indirectly, I don't care! And according to Zuko, it was _her_ idea to burn down my homeland! Have you forgotten all that?" Ty Lee wasn't sure she'd even seen her leader this upset.

"N-no. But...but she's not..." The acrobat's eyes were welling up again. She hated it when people were angry at her. _I knew this was a bad idea._

"You know what? You're right, I guess I just don't get it." Suki's voice was laced with venom. She wasn't usually like this, but the subject of Azula was a very sore spot for her. "I can't talk about this anymore," she finally stated and walked off.

Ty Lee's mouth opened and closed repeatedly as she debated with herself whether or not to stop her friend, but in the end she decided to do nothing...

It seemed that whenever she did, someone got hurt.

* * *

_**Ok, so, another chapter done and let me tell you all how sorry I am for making you wait so long and get so little. I've been away with no internet blah blah, excuses, excuses. And schools starting again, so I will most likely do all of my work during the weekends. I can't promise you a new chapter every weekend but I'll still do my best. I would like to make one thing absolutely clear, and that is that I am NOT a smut writer. I don't know whay I put that in my story, I just thought it fitted. Don't expect heavy sexual themes here, cause you'll be very disappointed. And I know, I'm awful. With this chapter I'm just stalling Ty Lee's arrival to the Fire Nation and forcing more back-story down your throats. Well, this has been me rambling apologies for how sucky I am. Thanks for reading. Peace out!**  
_


	4. Chapter 3: Alone with Your Thoughts

**_I cannot even begin to say how sorry I am for making you wait so long for an update, and then give you so little. I have been so busy with school and whenever I get free time and want to start writing, something comes up. Now, enough of that. I wanted to try to write from the POV of another character for a change, and who better to change to from the bubbly acrobat than Mai. This chapter isn't very important, just some pointless filler really, but still, an update is an update._**

* * *

**Chapter 3: Alone with Your Thoughts**

_Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap. Nope, this isn't working either._

Mai stopped tapping her index finger on the armrest of her mahogany chair. It wasn't doing anything to quell the never-ending boredom staying in this room was causing.

Zuko was in yet another meeting with his High-Council and apparently it wasn't appropriate for the Fire Lord's wife to attend such a meeting. _Stupid traditions._ She was smarter than all those generals and governors combined, but instead of using this talent for the management of the state, Zuko was enough of a pushover to let her talent go to waste.

She didn't have anything to do. At first she'd thought marrying the Fire Lord, the leader of the most powerful nation in the world, would give her something to do. But it seemed politics were no place for a _lady. _Ooh, how she hated that word. It came with so many stupid expectations.

The room she'd spent all too many hours in wasn't all that unpleasant. The ceiling was high up, almost ridiculously so, and the walls were lined with tall bookcases with the exception of the east wall, which had a large door leading out to a balcony. It was designed so that a person could enjoy the sunrise or something like that. It was stupid in Mai's opinion.

Her gaze moved over the uncountable number of books that seemed to cover the entire crimson surface of the walls. In the past two years there had been far to many days just like this one, and the Fire Lady had read just about every single book that even just slightly sparked her attention. Being an incredibly fast reader of course didn't help.

It looked like the only thing she could really do to keep herself from going insane was letting her mind wander, but for some reason it always came back to the same subject; the things she hated about this stupid royal life.

Every single moment she was required to wear some fancy, overly elaborate gowns. Naturally she had insisted that the one tailored especially for her had compartments all over the inside of it so she could still carry her weapons of choice. Having spent so much time walking around with all those knives and darts, they'd become a part of her, so to speak, and being able to keep them at least gave her a little comfort. Of course that didn't change the fact that the gown itself was _way _too heavy for her to move around quickly in, and so long that it constricted most movement that wasn't _gracefully _walking around._  
_

She stood up, only to get a dizzy feeling and realizing she had been sitting down for far too long. Stretching her arms and walking across the room to one of the shelves, moving her pale finger over various titles. _Read it, read it, read it, would rather chew glass than read, read it..._

Hearing the large door behind her creaking, she quickly whipped around and drew one of her small knives out of her sleeve.

Zuko stopped dead in his tracks in front of her. His expression was a that of both surprise and exhaustion.

"If you're going to kill me I would at least like to get one last nap," he said as a smile slowly crept onto his face.

She sighed in relief and lowered her weapon. The last two years had not only been excruciatingly boring, but they had also made her a bit paranoid. "I guess I'll let you go this time." She walked towards him and gave him a gentle kiss on the lips. "I just pray that your day was as dreadful as mine."

"Well, if you consider hours and hours of discussing the distribution of crops and other agricultural matters dreadful, well you know what I mean," he chuckled. "I'm just glad you're able to stand me having to go to so many meetings."

"Hey!" she pulled back a little and poked him in the center of the chest. "I'm not going to be bored like this for nothing! You owe me a trip somewhere." She loved the fact that every time she was able to spend time with her husband, she remembered why she put up with all of the things that bothered her about the royal life.

Zuko chuckled. "Of course. We'll go to Ember Island or something when everybody arrives."

She smiled. They'd sent out letters to all of their friends, Aang, Katara, Sokka, Suki, Toph, Iroh, and last, but definitely not least, Ty Lee. Mai usually didn't like having to many people visiting in the palace, since she had to play the role of hostess, but the thought of seeing their friends again, especially the bubbly little acrobat, was something she was really looking forward to. It would be a refreshing change of pace from her recent activities of finding new, previously unknown ways to be bored. Most of all she looked forward to seeing her childhood friend. She hadn't seen Ty Lee in months, not since those awful meetings in Ba Sing Se.

Of course the idea of inviting all those people to the palace had not only been to give her something to do, although she probably would have suggested that either way. The real motive was that her and Zuko had news they wanted to break to all their friends and closest family, but they felt it was to big to simply write it in a letter.

It was quite exciting news, however it was very difficult to be excited about when you were stuck in the same stupid room for hours and hours almost every day with absolutely nothing to do. Being able to tell someone else would hopefully make her feel a bit more enthused.

"Mai?" The Fire Lady was snapped out of her train of thought. She looked over to see her husband who was now examining the side of one of the bookshelves, tracing his fingers along the small holes and cuts on the wooden surface. "Didn't we talk about not practicing knife-throwing inside the palace?"

"I don't know Zuko," her indifferent facade broke and her usually monotone voice revealed her frustration. _I can't believe him! I wouldn't have to resort to this if it wasn't for him. _"Didn't we also talk about _you _spending way to much time in meetings and not enough with, ooh I don't know...your _wife!_"

"Ok, ok. Fair point." Zuko took the hint and backed off. Mai had been a bit moody recently, not that she was to blame, so he guessed taking some time off for her wasn't too much to ask for.

He walked over to embrace her again. For a second she considered not letting him, but in the end decided she wasn't _that _mad at him. She returned the gentle embrace, resting her head on his shoulder. She was not a short woman, but Zuko still towered over her.

"I _am_ sorry, you know," Zuko said apologetically and kissed the top of her head.

"Yeah," she sighed. "Ooh yeah, I meant to ask you; When do you think people will start arriving?" Not that she wasn't genuinely curious about it, but she really wanted to change the subject.

"Well," Zuko rubbed his chin, a habit he had taken up when he was in deep thought, or just thinking in general, Mai had noticed. "Aang and Katara were in Yu Dao, and they have Appa, so it shouldnt take them more than a few more days to get here. Sokka should arrive with a ship from the South Pole a few days later, and Toph... Well I think Toph's going to show up whenever she pleases really."

Her lips curved in a slight smile, but thankfully he picked up that she wasn't completely satisfied.

"Ooh, how could I forget. Suki and Ty Lee's ship should get here the night after tomorrow."

_That _was was what she'd wanted to hear. She looked forward to seeing everyone, but none as much as her bubbly childhood-friend. She could think of no one better to get her out of this rut than the overly cheery acrobat. Even though she was glad, she was a bit worried as well. Every time they saw each other, which wasn't often enough in Mai's opinion, she was sure Ty Lee was going to bring up the subject of a certain ex-princess, she could tell she wanted to. However, to the Fire Lady's great surprise, it had never come up. She knew Ty Lee cared deeply for that sociopath, though she couldn't understand why. In fact, she'd started to suspect there had been something more going on between the former-princess and the acrobat. She never told anyone, of course, it was a very serious accusation after all.

Pushing the slightly disturbing thoughts out of her mind, Mai refocused on her husband, gently stroking his scarred cheek. "Well, anyway. Now that you're here _at last_," she purred seductively. "I have a few ideas of what we could do to keep us from being bored."

Zuko's cheeks flushed and he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Well, actually, this is just a break of sorts," he loosened his grip on his wife. "I have to be back in the throne room in a few minutes."

"You have got to be kidding." Mai deadpanned.

"Heh, sorry." Zuko apologized as he started walking backwards to the large door. "But hey. I promised I'd make it up to you, didn't I?"

_He's halfway out the door. I wonder if I could still hit him with a knife if I do it now. _

"Yeeeah," There was a dangerous tone in her voice, and Zuko obviously noticed.

"Eeh, so, I'm off then. Sorry again," with that said he practically bolted out the door, leaving Mai there, staring daggers at thin air.

_I swear to Agni, one of these days I'm actually going to kill him..._

_After the trip, of course._

* * *

Ty Lee sat quietly in her quarters, deep in thought.

It had been about four days since her fight with Suki, and the two had barely spoken since. The acrobat didn't go out of her room much, out of fear of running into her captain, who she was sure now hated her. The only times she went out she made sure there was nobody around, but even then she made an effort to be as sneaky as possible. She even went so far as to have a boy she met on the ship bring her meals to her room. She felt a bit bad for using him like that, but desperate times...

Now she was sitting there, rubbing her chin in an attempt to think more clearly. For the last few hours she'd been pondering the same thing; How to tell Zuko and Mai she wanted to see Azula. She couldn't just go "Hey guys. Nice to see you. I want to go see Azula." No, she had to be more subtle. _Ooh wait. I'm horrible at being subtle. _

Groaning in frustration, she started lightly bashing her head down on the desk in front of her. The dull sound it made echoed of the metal walls. She decided to stop before she either suffered a major head injury or the sound of her misery drove her ins-

She stopped her own thoughts. For the past two years she'd tried to steer clear of that word. Then again, seeing as how she was going to see her old friend again she was probably going to hear it a lot, she might as well try to get used to it.

_Now, back on topic. What could I say to them? Couldn't I just upfront with them? Just tell them? That's so simple it actually might work!_

That or she didn't feel like thinking of something more complicated. She wasn't sure.

Her mind went wandering again. She didn't even notice.

_"Ty Lee, get down from there. You're going to hurt yourself!" the little princess shouted at her as she dangled from the branches of a tall tree._

_"Don't be silly. I never fall!" She called back. Then, of course, she fell. Twisted her ankle pretty bad too. Azula had to half-drag, half-carry her inside to the nurse.  
_

A loud roar brought her back to the world. She must have nodded off. She looked out the small, circular window and saw crashing waves and thick, dark clouds pouring water down on the world. She wasn't concerned, though. She was still pretty dazed from the rude awakening, and her mind was still replaying the distant memory in her head.

_I wonder if she hates me. _

She laid down on her bed, not bothering to pull the covers on.

_I wonder if she even knows how sorry I am._

* * *

It was cold. Dark too.

_Why is it so cold? Why is it so dark? Wait...isn't it always cold here? Isn't it always dark here?_

_Where is here? Where am I? _

_Did I just get here? _

_No...No, I've been here for a while. Haven't I? _

She tried to get up. Her feet wouldn't carry her and she fell down. She tried to soften the blow with her hands but found that she couldn't move them.

_Wha...what's going on. _She struggled. Her arms were stuck. She started panicking.

She screamed. _Help me. Ooh Agni help me! _Her screams didn't actually come out as words. Only pitiful cries of pain.

Suddenly her world was flooded with blinding light. Shadowy figures surrounded her. They reached out and grabbed her.

_No! NO! Leave me alone! Please!_

They were so strong. They held her down, grabbing virtually every joint in her body to hold her still.

_Stop it! Go away! Help me! MOMMY!_

She cried, her tears further obscuring her vision.

Suddenly she felt a sharp pain in the side of her neck. Shortly after she was released. The shadows retreated and the mysterious light source disappeared. She tried to get up, to run away. As far away as possible. But her limbs would not obey her. She couldn't move. All she could do was lay there and weep.

After a while she saw another form moving towards her. Eyes wide, she tried to flee, but was of course completely helpless. The creature came closer and leaned over the weeping girls face, revealing it's appearance.

_M-mother? _

The creature looked at her with contempt. It shook it's head and began walking away.

_No. Mother! Don't leave me! _

_Don't leave..._

* * *

**_Ok, one more chapter down. I do not think this chapter reflects my best work, but whatever. I decided not to reveal what the "news" that Zuko and Mai have for the rest of the characters is, but I guess you CAN figure it out for yourselves. I also decided to have a little Azula tease at the end. As you can see she not really thinking clearly. I will also apologize if you think Ty Lee isn't happy or bubbly enough, but she's going through some pretty rough times, so she's obviously not as happy as she might have been on the show. I'm sorry for the late update (once again). And I will try to work harder, but as I said, I have a lot of other stuff to do. As always I would love it if you left reviews telling me what you think of the story so far._**

**_Peace out! _**


	5. Chapter 4: Homecoming

**_Hello again. New chapter's up. Hope you like it. *Insert lame apology for lateness of chapter. Blah, blah, social life, blah, blah, excuses.*_**

* * *

**Chapter 4: Homecoming**

_28, 29, 30..._

Ty Lee silently counted as she ran her wooden comb through her long brown hair spilling over her shoulders and back, her trademark braid absent. It was dusk and a few minutes ago the captain had informed her that they would be docking in the Fire Nation Capital in about an hour. She'd looked in a mirror to make sure she looked acceptable but realized that the last few days had left her looking like what she could only describe as a 'wreck'. So now she was sitting on a small stool in front of her vanity, looking into the mirror and making herself presentable. Getting dressed, combing her hair and carefully using make-up to hide the dark bags under her eyes.

_Ok, now that's done. Only one thing left._

She pulled her hair back and began the annoyingly long process of tying it into a braid. She had plenty of time though, and over the years she'd gotten used to this time-consuming task.

She was quite nervous about going ashore. She'd promised herself to go and visit Azula in the hospital, and she wasn't sure Mai and Zuko would take the news all that well. But she was also discouraged by the fact that leaving the boat was most likely going to lead to a confrontation with Suki, something the acrobat had managed to avoid for the past few days. The argument they had a few days ago- well, it wasn't as much of an argument as it was Suki yelling at her, but the point was that her leader and good friend now probably hated her.

Even though Suki had been one of the last to accept Ty Lee on Kyoshi island, she'd been one of the few that she'd really formed a connection with. Sure people liked her, and most of the other warriors were friendly, but Suki was almost the only one of them she considered a close friend, and now she'd ruined that.

_Man, I am really good at this whole 'friend' thing._

After a few minutes of carefully braiding her hair and tying a small ribbon at it's end to hold it in place, she took a long hard look at herself in the mirror. Great, she looked just like she was supposed to.

Just like she did all those years ago.

She could almost see Azula standing behind her, fiddling with her hair.

_No! Stop it. I can't start thinking about this now!_

But as it had been for these past few days, the acrobat wasn't strong enough to keep the thoughts about her old friend out of her head.

* * *

_"Stay still, Ty Lee!"_

_The twelve-year-old princess scolded her friend sitting on the small chair in front of the vanity in the royal's room._

_"Well, I wouldn't move so much if you could just be little more gentle, you kn- ouch!"_

_Another sharp tug at the acrobat's braid made her wince. Azula stood behind her, trying hopelessly to untangle the mess hanging from the back of her friends head. It was tangles in the worst places imaginable and dry leaves and small twigs stuck out of it here and there. "What were you even doing in those hedges?" The annoyance was clear in her voice, though it was likely more because of her own inability to fix her friends hair than anything else._

_"Well, I was just seeing if I could swing over them from that big tree and...I couldn't," she was happy that Azula was too busy to see her blush slightly. She was never one to brag about her acrobatics but she still liked to impress her friend, and failing like this was a bit embarrassing._

_"Ugh. And you felt the need to get me to help you because...?" Ty Lee had just popped in on the princess out of nowhere and asked for her help._

_"I was on my way to see you anyways," the pink girl's smile faded as she continued. "You've been so busy lately. I hardly ever see you anymore."_

_Looking at her reflection in the mirror, Ty Lee could see Azula's face soften. She looked a bit...guilty?_

_"Well, it's not my fault," the princess replied a bit more defensively that Ty Lee had expected. "Now that Zuko's been banished I'm next in line to become Fire Lord. I have to train. I have to be good enough." It was starting to sound like she was talking to herself rather than the girl sitting in front of her._

_"I know 'Zula. But I still wish we could spend some more time together."_

_Azula sighed. As the conversation went on her hands had slowed down and gotten more gentle in fixing up her friend's hair. "Tell you what Ty. I'll try to get a day off from training as soon as I can and we'll hang out. We can even have a sleepover like when we were kids."_

_Ty Lee wanted to point out that they were in fact still kids, but over the years she'd gotten a bit better at knowing when something that popped into her head was a good thing to say or not. Rather, she focused on the amazing news. The hadn't had a sleepover since that one time three years ago. She was beginning to think they never would again. "That sounds awesome Azula!" She jumped up from the chair, forgetting that the princess' strong hands were still in her braid. She was quickly yanked down by the sheer force of her enthusiasm. "Ouch!"_

_She heard Azula chuckle lightly behind her. "Calm down. I still haven't finished fixing you hair." She didn't sound as bothered by the task as she had been earlier._

_"Ok, thanks again 'Zula." _

_"Don't mention it. You'd probably do the same for me." _

* * *

A loud knock brought her back to reality.

A masculine voice called from behind the door. "Miss Ty Lee. Captain Wei Chan told me to inform you we'd be docking in five minutes!"

It took her a while for the words to sink in. "Y-yeah. Be right there," she muttered, not wondering if the man heard her or not. Her eyes were fixed on the girl in the mirror in front of her. Her mouth was slightly open, it's corners curving downwards. Tears mixed with make-up had made several colored streaks down her face and the bags under her eyes were revealed.

This had got to stop. Ever since they set sail for the Fire Nation she'd been having trouble with controlling these random flashbacks. She'd completely zone out for some time and 'relive' some childhood memory of her and Azula before the war ended, when ironically, she'd actually been happy.

_Wait. Did he say five minutes? _

"Shit!" She started hastily wiping the make-up smudges of her face and reapplying it to once again hide the bags under her sleep-depraved eyes. She didn't have time to do it carefully like before so she just clumsily applied it and hoped nobody would notice. She looked back in the mirror. _Well, this will have to do. _

She walked over to the metal door of her room, sighed and put on the best fake-smile she could manage, which, to be fair, was pretty good.

She made her way down the narrow hall and up the stairs to the top-deck. She looked ahead and saw the city she'd grown up in moving closer and closer. The sun had almost set and cast a weak red glow over the capital of the Fire Nation, accenting it's already visible red features. It was beautiful.

As the ship slowed down and eventually stopped in the harbor, allowing it's crew to start fastening it and placing a ramp for the passengers to get on land with, Ty Lee noticed Suki climbing up the stairs and onto the deck. They made eye-contact but the acrobat quickly broke it and looked shamefully down at her feet, fiddling with the end of her braid nervously. _Should I say something? No, she's probably still mad at me._

The leader of the Kyoshi warriors walked over to where Ty Lee and the other passengers were waiting to get ashore. Awkward silence ensued.

Suki was of course not wearing her Kyoshi warrior outfit. She was dressed in a sleeveless, dark green belly shirt and a matching skirt that reached her knees. It was very simple but it suited her well.

The boarding ramp was finally fastened into place and the captain informed the passengers they could step onto the docks. Most of the other passengers seemed to be either Fire Nationals returning to their homes or travelers from the Earth Kingdom. It was easy to tell by the way people dressed.

I single line was formed and people started walking off the ship one at a time. It went on slowly but Ty Lee supposed it was better than letting everybody just rush off the ship. Most of them would probably be pushed in the sea.

Stepping on something solid for the first time in two weeks felt really weird. It too the acrobat a few moments to get familiarized with it.

"Lady Ty Lee?" she heard someone call though the crowd. She stood on her toes to try to see who it was, with no success. _Why do I have to be so damn short? _

As the crowd started to clear up she saw a short man dressed in expensive looking red robes with a golden trim. He was waving at her, motioning her to come closer. Behind him were four large men, each standing at different sides of what she recognized as a royal palanquin.

"Aah yes. You must be Lady Ty Lee," the man said with a smile as he gave a curt bow. His voice was slightly high-pitched.

"Yeah, that's me. How did you know?" She figured Mai and Zuko must have sent these guys as some sort of greeting party to escort them to the palace, she saw that the palanquin was empty. She appreciated the gesture and all, but it still felt too much like she was being treated as a kid.

"The Fire Lady instructed me to look for a girl with a long braid, and here you are," he smiled again.

_Hey, for all Mai knows I could have changed hairstyles, it's not like we ever see each other anymore. Aww, who am I kidding? _

She didn't understand why she was feeling so irritated all of a sudden. It could just be the sea-sickness. _Yeah, that must be it. _She knew that wasn't the case but she decided not to think about it further.

"And you must be Lady Suki," the man bowed politely again, this time to Ty Lee's side. Suki had walked up to her without the acrobat even noticing. "Yeah, that's me."

"Well, then," the man clapped his bony hands together, looking quite content, "I am Daisuke, the head of the Royal Palanquin Bearers. Fire Lady Mai asked me personally to welcome you and escort you to the palace."

"Well, thank you for your...uhm...hospitality," Suki didn't have much experiences talking to high-ranking people, she always preferred acting more casual, "but we're not royalty. Should we really have to be carried in one of the royal palanquins?" Ty Lee was thinking the same, but didn't say it. Now that she knew Suki was right next to her she found it exceedingly difficult to speak up.

"That may be true, but you two are, none the less, honored guests of the Fire Lord and Lady. That, on its own, comes with its privileges," he smiled and put his hands into his sleeves. "Now Ladies. If you would take your seats, we can get moving." Suki just smiled and walked towards the rather large palanquin and with Ty Lee trailing nervously behind her. The thought of being alone with Suki in such a small space was very uncomfortable to say the least.

They stepped past the red curtain that sealed to inside of the transport from the rest of the world. There were plush silk pillows on either side of it, indicating the seating positions. They both carefully sat down without a word.

Ty Lee didn't like this one bit. She'd never been good with facing her problems head on, or at all for that matter. She'd been deliberately avoiding Suki for the past few days and now she was going to be stuck with her in that small, confined space for what she guessed would be at least half an hour. _What if she starts yelling at me again? _

Daisuke could be heard clapping his hands and giving some short command to the palanquin bearers. Somehow the thick curtains managed to block out most of the sound outside of the small box they were seated in. Ty Lee couldn't quite decide whether this was a good or a bad thing.

She could feel the palanquin being lifted off the ground and almost immediately started moving. The men carrying it managed to hold it incredibly steady, then again they probably had a lot of experience. This was their job after all.

With most outside sound blocked off, the silence was almost unbearable. Suki just sat there and Ty Lee stared down at her own lap, fiddling with the end of her braid, making sure to absolutely not make eye contact with her friend. If they even were friends at this point.

After about fifteen minutes, Suki finally broke the silence. "Ty Lee? Are you mad at me for what happened back on the ship?"

"Huh?" The acrobat was speechless. Her? Mad at Suki? That didn't even make sense.

"What are you talking about," it took some time to finally get the words out.

"Well, you've been avoiding me ever since. What else am I supposed to think?" To Ty Lee's surprise, Suki didn't sound angry at all. Her voice was full of regret. _What's going on? _

"I-I thought you didn't even want to speak to me. You looked so mad," her gaze fell back down at her lap as her lip started to tremble slightly. "I thought you hated me."

"Ooh, Ty..." Suki leaned in and gently wrapped her arms around her smallish friend. "How could I possibly hate you? I'm sorry." They stayed like that for a while, it felt nice. When the hug broke and Suki leaned back she stopped for a moment and wiped away a couple of tears that Ty Lee had unknowingly let out. She notice Suki's brow furrowed a bit. _What's she...the make-up. Damn it! _

"What's..." Suki moved her fingers over the area under her friend's eyes, no doubt revealing the mark of her lack of sleep. "Ty! Haven't you been sleeping at all?"

"Well, I've tried," she said as she actually managed to form a half-hearted smile.

The Kyoshi warrior just shook her head. "Ooh, this won't do. We're supposed to on vacation and you just look worse than ever."

"Gee, thanks," Ty Lee replied dryly, yet slightly playfully. Her mood was definitely improving. And although sarcasm had never been her strong suit, that was more Mai's department, she just couldn't resist.

Suki just looked at her for a few seconds before starting to chuckle. The acrobat quickly followed, laughing at this fundamentally unfunny situation. When they stopped, the air between them seemed to have cleared. They sat laid back in they cushioned seats and relaxed. No more words were needed.

A few minutes later they could feel the palanquin slowly coming to a halt and being slowly lowered to the ground. Daisuke's slim hand pulled back the thick curtain as he poked his head in. "We've arrived, ladies." He held the curtain open and motioned for them to step out.

As Ty Lee stepped out and looked forwards the realization of where she was hit her like a brick.

There it was, the Imperial Palace. The steps she used to run up, the walls she used to climb, the roof she used to sit on, the gardens she used to play in.

_Yeah, I'm home. _

* * *

**_Ok, chapter done. I don't have much to say about it, other than this: For those who might worry I'm going to write Azula as a very 'nice' person in this story rest assured, she only acted like that because it was Ty Lee. Also, Ty Lee may be exaggerating happy memories in her head. Also, fun fact: Daisuke is a Japanese name and I'm pretty sure it means 'great helper'._**

**_Hope you liked it, peace out. _**


	6. Chapter 5: No Turning Back

_**Well, that's another chapter done. I know I've taken my time in writing some of these chapters but never this long. I don't even want to think about how long it's been, I'm really sorry about that. It's just that my stupid social life gave me a lot of free time to make me think I could easily handle a project like this and then swamps me with a bunch of other stuff when I've started. **_

* * *

**Chapter 5: No Turning Back**

Waking up felt strange. The silk sheets, the numerous pillows cradling her head and the incredibly soft mattress that was so large that even when the acrobat stretched both her arms and legs as far as she could, they did not leave the borders of the bed.

She sat up and rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand. How much sleep had she gotten? Four hours? Three? She wasn't sure. Even with the luxurious bed she'd been provided with she'd stayed up for hours, just laying under the sheets, trying to think of a good way to go about the next order of business.

After arriving at the palace they had been taken to their assigned guest rooms right away and told that Zuko and Mai would see them at breakfast first thing in the morning. This was when Ty Lee had decided to tell them that she wanted to make a visit to a certain mental patient.

Getting up and stretching, she started going through the process of getting dressed and tying her hair back. Just as she was putting the final touches on her braid the door knocked and she could hear Daisuke's high-pitched voice. "Lady Ty Lee! The Fire Lord and Lady would have you join them in the Royal dining room for breakfast as soon as you can!"

"Okay, I'll be there in a moment," she called back. She'd only been there a single night and it was already starting to bother her how formal everybody spoke. She just hoped that Mai and Zuko wouldn't be that way too. They were friends, after all. She carefully applied her make-up and walked up to the door. Taking a deep breath, she put on a big, goofy grin and opened the door. She was greeted by Daisuke's crooked little grin and a small bow. He looked as if he was slightly impatient and spent little time on formalities. _Thank Agni!_

As she was led down the large halls of the palace she was hit by a new wave of nostalgia. There was so much that reminded her of the past. The high, crimson walls, the dark marble floor. It was a bit overwhelming. There were some noticeable changes, however. The large portraits of former Fire Lords had been taken down and replaced with other works of art, mostly paintings of beautiful landscapes, and the entire hall just seemed...brighter. It didn't look like the manner of lighting had been changed, but there was just something about the atmosphere that had changed. Servants chatted and gossiped as they walked past the acrobat, but when she'd been younger an eerie silence had always dominated the palace interior. _Zuko's been making some changes. _

She was quickly joined by Suki who smiled warmly and offered her a good morning. The day was going well...so far.

The way from the guest quarters to the royal dining room led through a rather large courtyard. There were several trees on which there grew beautiful white-pinkish blossoms, a pond where a family of turtle-ducks swam and quacked happily and a sizable clear area meant for members of the Royal family to train firebending.

It looked no different from the last time she had been here about two years ago.

* * *

_The pink clad acrobat skipped happily across the palace grounds, smiling and greeting almost every servant my name, ignoring the questioning stares they gave her. Today she was the happiest girl in the world and nothing was going to bring her down, or that was at least what she thought. _

_The night before she'd snuck into the royal palace and spent the night with Azula and it had been the happiest night of her life. She'd never felt closer with the princess as she did then, and Azula had looked like she was really happy with this turn their relationship had taken as well. Unfortunately the princess had been called to a meeting with her father and Ty Lee had to sneak out way earlier than she'd wanted to, but Azula had told her to be back by noon, and here she was. _

_She decided to go to one of the larger courtyards since Azula usually practiced her firebending around this time of day, and sure enough, as she drew closer she could see flashes of blue coming from the practicing area. She found that she could not keep a steady pace as she approached the light's source, she had been looking forward to meeting her friend-turned-lover for too long. In reality it had only been a few hours since she left Azula's room, but when you do nothing but think about the thing you're excited about, time passes slowly. _

_As she stepped closer to the training area, she started waving and saying hello to Azula before she felt it. Something was wrong. _

_She stopped and looked over the scene before her. The gray stone square in the center of the area and even some grass and plants around it had been scorched by fire. There were three Imperial Firebenders standing on different sides of the zone and even though she couldn't see their faces, Ty Lee could hear their heavy breathing echo inside their helmets Lastly her eyes fell upon the person standing in the middle of all this, Azula. Her bending stance was the same as it always was, if just slightly more tense than usual, her breath almost matched that of the soldiers around her and an occasional drop of sweat ran down her face which was itself set in a grimace of rage. _

_"Again!" the princess shouted. They soldiers hesitated for a moment before attacking, launching streams of fire from their fists at the young princess who effortlessly swept her leg though the air, creating an arc of blue flames that quickly overpowered that of her attackers. As soon as she brought her foot down she raised the other one and delivered a kick that sent a burst of fire at one of the Imperial Firebenders, knocking him hard onto his back. She quickly turned and sent another blast to each of the other soldiers with the same effect. She looked very frustrated at their seeming inability to get up. "Come on! Get up you weaklings. Again!"_

_"Uhm, A-Azula?" the acrobat took a few careful steps towards the princess as she spoke. Azula's head snapped in her direction and her facial features seemed to soften a little when laying eyes on her friend, but they still showed an incredible amount of anger. _

_All this frightened the little acrobat a bit. Azula had looked so happy that morning, well, at least content, and even when she got angry or sad she'd bottle it up. Something really bad must have happened. _

_"What do you want!?" the princess practically hissed at her. Ty Lee had to steady herself a bit before responding. "W-well, you told me to come back here at noon so..." there was a brief pause. "Are you alright?"_

_For a moment it looked like Azula was just going to explode and throw the acrobat out, but she ended up just sighing. She'd calmed down, if only just a little. "It's Zuzu." She spit out his name like a curse word. _

_Ty Lee was dumbfounded. What could Zuko possibly had done to make the princess feel this mad. He couldn't have said anything to her, or broken anything. "What do you mean? What did he do?"_

_"That idiot ran off to join the damn Avatar," Azula snarled. _

_"What?" He'd actually joined the Avatar? Ty Lee had noticed the prince had been acting kind of weird for the fast few weeks but the thought of him joining forces with their enemy had never even crossed her mind. But why was Azula so upset? The acrobat knew the princess didn't have much love for her brother, she'd even looked a little amused when he'd been banished a few years back, but now she was furious._

_"A-and?" she asked. She was almost certain there was more to her friends anger than this._

_"_And_ that bastard made a point of it to tell my father that I lied about killing the Avatar in Ba Sing Se!" Azula sit out every syllable with as much venom in her voice as possible. "And as you might imagine he wasn't very happy about that," she muttered as she turned around and started walking out of the training area and motioned for Ty Lee to follow. _

_It was then something caught the acrobat's eye. Just under the collar of the red shirt Azula wore under her armor her skin looked a little red-ish. Ty Lee reached over and carefully pulled the collar down to reveal that a large portion of the skin on the princess' lower neck was red, almost like a burn wound. It was shaped like a hand. She only got to look at it for a split second though as she princess quickly winced, turned to face her and roughly pushed her back._

_"Don't touch me!" she looked even angrier than before but her eyes were wide in what looked like slight panic. She knew what Ty Lee saw. _

_"Azula," the gray eyes girl was more than a little hurt, but she also felt immensely sorry for her friend. "I just want to help, you know."_

_Then something strange happened. Azula smiled. It wasn't warm or welcoming however, but cold and threatening. "I am the princess of the greatest nation in the world and heir to the throne. What could a stupid little acrobat possibly help me with?" The smile only lasted for a moment as the princess' grimace returned as she spoke. _

_Ty Lee was actually getting a bit scared now. The look on Azula's face was...well, she didn't really know how to describe it. She was obviously furious, but her lips twitched occasionally and her eyes were wide open in an unstable sort of way. What puzzled her even more was what her friend was saying to her. They'd been closer than ever only a few hours ago and now this._

_"Get out," the princess ordered much more calmly than one would expect as she turned around and resumed her walk towards the inside of the palace. _

_"Azula?" _

_"I said. Get. Out." And with that the princess strode off into the palace, leaving Ty Lee in the courtyard with her hopes of this becoming a great day completely shattered. _

* * *

Ty Lee remembered that day as well as almost every other moment she'd shared with the princess. That particular conversation had taken place a few days before they left for the Boiling Rock, and by then they'd made up after Ty Lee promised to stay away from things that were "none of her business" and Azula had actually apologized. Of course that hadn't lasted long.

Suddenly she realized that they were standing in front of the door leading to the royal dining room. These short while where she phased out had stopped surprising her and she'd given up trying to fight them. The only solution was to face its cause.

"Hey," Ty Lee looked to her side as Suki nudged her. "Are you alright?" her leader asked carefully.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she smiled, but it wasn't one of her fake, exaggerated smiles. She'd realized that wasn't going to do any good with Suki. The Kyoshi Warrior nodded and smiled back at her. They both turned their attention to the large doors as the guards on either side of it pushed it open.

Meeting Mai and Zuko went the same way it had the last few times they'd met. There were a lot of 'Great to see you agains', 'you look greats' and smiling, even from Mai. After that they sat down and began chatting about virtually everything that had happened for the last few months while eating from the most beautiful and delicious buffet of breakfast dishes Ty Lee had seen since she was a little girl. Suki asked what it was that the Fire Lord and Lady had wanted to tell them but they said they'd like to wait until everyone arrived. "Everyone?" Suki asked.

"Yeah," Zuko stated happily. "Aang, Katara, Sokka, Toph and uncle are all on their way. This was good news. At least it eliminated the possibility that the news was something serious. _Wow, when did I start being so pessimistic?__  
_

Ty Lee herself didn't talk as much as the others though. Every time she was about to start leading the conversation towards the subject of going to see Azula she was cut off or she chickened out at the last second. Her friends kept on talking and laughing at something she didn't quite hear. She was to lost in her own thoughts about how to go about doing this. _Come on you chicken, do it. Okay, I'm not really a chicken I'm just...yeah, I am. _

"IWANTTOGOSEEAZULA!" The room was suddenly filled with a strange silence. Ty Lee lifted her head and looked around only to find that everyone's eyes were fixed on her. Had she said that out loud?

Mai was the first to break the silence. "You want to...what?" she asked in a voice that was somewhere between her usual monotone and that of complete shock.

"I...I want to..." she swallowed nervously and looked down at the bountiful plate in front of her avoiding making eye-contact. "I want to visit Azula in the hospital."

"Are you sure, Ty Lee?" She didn't have to look up to hear Zuko ask her. She nodded quickly, not wanting to say anything at the risk of her voice breaking. She hadn't known it was going to be _this _hard.

The young Fire Lord sighed. "Alright Ty. I'll send a messenger hawk to arrange for a visit."

The acrobat was quite surprised her friends hadn't protested more, or just flat out forbidden her from going, but she was too relieved to comment and risk ruining it. "T-thanks," was all she was able to say.

The rest of the meal was spent in relative silence with only an occasional remark about the food, Ty Lee however found that she had lost her appetite and just poked at it with her chopsticks.

After they'd finished eating Zuko hurried off to some meeting, leaving Ty Lee, Suki and a very annoyed looking Mai to spend the rest of the day together. Ty Lee was suddenly regretting having asked to see Azula so early in the morning.

They spent most of the day chatting and playing pai sho and her and Suki even took some time to spar in the courtyard. Ty Lee and Mai didn't really have a real conversation all day until finally, when it was approaching dusk.

"Hey, can I talk to you for a moment?" Mai motioned for Ty Lee to join her the pai sho table.

"Sure," the acrobat jumped over and sat down opposing Mai. Suki had gone out in the courtyard to look for a lost earring she figured had fallen off during the spar. They were completely alone. The silence stretched far longer than Ty Lee would've liked it to as Mai was wordlessly placing the tiles on the pai sho board. "Soooo, what did you want to talk about?" the acrobat asked cheerfully, she had been doing a pretty good job maintaining a happy face since breakfast and she wasn't about to fail now.

Mai finished placing the tiles before looking up at her friend and asking very calmly in her monotone voice, "Ty, are you serious about going to see Azula?"

"Of course I'm serious silly. What makes you think I wouldn't be?" It had never been more difficult for her to feign cheerfulness, and that was saying something.

"Well I just figured, you know, after last time," she left the sentence unfinished.

Ty Lee's happy façade dropped in a split second. She couldn't believe Mai would throw that in her face like that. "Mai, I am completely serious," she spoke slowly and calmly, suppressing the urge to shout at the Fire Lady. "You told me to stay away from her, and I did, but it's been two years and I just can't take it anymore."

Mai nodded, her expression staying the same throughout the entire conversation. "Alright then. But since you'll probably be going there pretty soon, most likely tomorrow or the day after, I'd like for it to be arranged so that you'll speak with Akari, the head nurse at the asylum. She's been in charge of taking care of Azula for the last two years and I want her to tell you what you should be expecting when you meet her again. Does that sound acceptable?"

Mai was speaking in exactly the way Ty Lee had hoped she wouldn't, it didn't even sound like she was speaking to a friend, but even though the way she said it was infuriating, Ty Lee had to admit what Mai said made a lot of sense. "Yes, your highness, it does," she almost hissed through her clenched teeth. "Now, if you'll excuse me I think I'll go help Suki find her earring," she said as she quickly strode out of the room. Even though she was pretty mad, she could take solace in one thing Mai had said...

_There's not turning back now. I'm coming Azula._

* * *

_**Thank you guys for bearing though yet another one of my boring chapters where nothing really happens. But in case you were wondering (and it somehow slipped your mind) the flashback in this chapter is a direct follow-up to the one from chapter 2. **  
_

**_Ok, so I don't really have much more to say other than I hope you like it and that I'll finally get to write more about Azula from now on :D  
_**

**_As always I would really appreciate it if you guys would review the story and tell me what you think. _**

**_Peace out!_**


	7. Chapter 6: Reunion

_**Alright, yet another chapter, finally finished. You know, in a way it is good that this story doesn't have way too many followers, it makes me feel like I'm not letting too many people down by taking so long to write so little. But anyways, hope you enjoy this!**_

* * *

**Chapter 6: Reunion**

_Lead._

Yes, that was the correct word. She felt like there was a big ball of boiling hot lead in her stomach. And it only grew as she watched the island on the horizon grow larger.

The acrobat had been woken up early that morning by Mai who had informed her that the arrangements for her to visit Kuang Mental Hospital were finished. She was still surprised that her request had been handled with less protest, but she wasn't about to argue.

Mai had escorted her to the harbor but when they got to the ferry the Fire Lady informed her that she had no intention of going to visit Azula a second time and while Ty Lee didn't like the tone in which she said she, she supposed she understood.

As the ferry drew closer to its destination the smooth marble tower became more visible and every detail reminded Ty Lee of her last trip. It looked eerily similar, although it seemed there was more activity around it than the last time. She guessed it was to be expected. The last time she was there was only a few days after the war had ended and the place had just reopened. During the war Ozai had not been fond of the idea of spending time or resources to help those with illnesses of the mind and the island was in stead used as a lookout post intended to spot enemies and send warning to the capital, but with the war over and a new, more caring Fire Lord on the throne it had been converted back to fulfill its original purpose.

Many other institutions had also been either reopened or created purely for the sake of repairing a hundred years worth of damage to the world. Hospitals were opened, factories were converted to make medicine or building material instead of machines of war and schools for middle- and lower-class citizens were opened, free of charge. Teaching material in schools and academies was also drastically changed considering that what had been taught earlier had just been blatant propaganda. Along with all this a lot of resources went into helping the rest of the world rebuild, the Earth Kingdom was being particularly demanding on that part. They used the fact that Zuko wasn't in any position to deny them after making an official declaration about doing all in his power to help repair the damage his nation, or as he would often put it, his family had caused over the years.

Even though many people, including the acrobat, felt that these changes were nothing but great there was a surprisingly large group of people who did not care for Zuko's new regime and said that he was destroying the nations glory that his forebears spent years to build up. Many called for Ozai to be put back on his throne but since it was public knowledge that the Avatar relieved him of his bending abilities most loyalists hailed Azula as the rightful heir, since her mental state was _not _public knowledge. After the war an official statement had been made stating that the crown princess had been stripped of her titles and was under custody but it was obvious to many that something was out of place since the location of her prison was not given and even more so because she did not stand any trial for crimes committed during the war as many generals and Ozai himself had.

Thankfully there was no open rebellion but the citizens of the Fire Nations sure did use their newly acquired freedom of speech to badmouth the new Fire Lord. Many powerful families also lost huge sources of income and influence with the coming of peace since most military industry was either owned or operated by the noble houses.

Ty Lee had never had a particular interest in politics, in fact she found it dreadfully boring, but with the coming of freedom of speech so came the freedom of press. She couldn't put a number on the sleepless nights she had nothing to do on but reading from the new international newspaper 'The Peace Press'. If it wasn't for that she wouldn't have the slightest idea of what was going on in the world around her.

When the ferry arrived at the small docks on the lifeless island it was still early morning but none the less Ty Lee could see that the asylum, at least on the outside, was bustling with activity. It was most likely due to the fact that there seemed to be major construction going on at the towers base.

_What could they be building? New cells? A medical ward?_ She distracted herself in any way she could as she walked towards the menacing white building for the second time in her life.

The place was full of people similar to the once who were there the last time. Guards who were thankfully not wearing those awful skull masks anymore and doctors and nurses dressed in white robes. As Ty Lee walked up the steps that lead to the main entrance she noticed one of those white-clad people standing under the open archway, smiling down at her.

It was a middle-aged woman, perhaps in her fifties, with dark hair streaked with an occasional gray one tied in a large bun at the back of her head. She was about Ty Lee's height, which is to say not tall at all. She smiled warmly down at the acrobat, making the slight wrinkles around her eyes and the corners of her mouth more apparent.

"Uhmm, hey. I'm-"

"Lady Ty Lee. Yes I was told you were coming," the woman interrupted. There was something off about the way she acted, like she was too...cheerful. _Ooh, who the hell am I to think someone is too cheerful? _

"I am Tomiko, the head-nurse. I've been in charge of your friend care for the past two years," she said, still smiling. "If you would follow me, please."

Ty Lee followed Tomiko into the tower and as they started walking up the hallway spiraling the inside of the building she noticed how everything seemed nicer than it was two years ago. Cracks in the walls had been fixed and there were plants and various other decorations all over the place. She guessed it was to be expected, it _had _been two years of great improvement for most of the world.

They walked by a small window that gave them beautiful view over the ocean and suddenly a thought entered Ty Lee's mind. "Hey, uuh, Tomiko? All of the tower's rooms and cells are in the inner layer, right? They have no windows?"

"That's right. Why do you ask?" the older woman glanced back at her without slowing down even the slightest.

"Well I was just wondering how the air in all those rooms is if they have no windows. It must be awful."

"Well actually, we very recently completed the construction of a large ventilation pump at the base of the tower," Tomiko stated, sounding quite proud. Ty Lee was pretty sure she'd read about those. After the war the Mechanist had used Aang's knowledge of air currents and the technological advances of the Fire Nation and invented a system that pumped air systematically through small pathways inside the walls of buildings to keep the air inside fresh and cool. It was installed in many palaces around the world and quickly became popular with the richest families as well. _Well, it's good to know that they're going through the trouble to make the priso...PATIENTS_ _here feel better. _

"I guess that explains all the construction work I saw when I got here." Ty Lee said as they stepped through a small doorway leading into what looked like a small office. It was almost empty except for an expensive looking desk and chair in the the middle of the floor and a small flowerpot in the corner of the room.

"Yes that," Tomiko answered as she sat down on the opposite side of the sedk from Ty Lee. She was starting to sound a little bit impatient. "And we're having a courtyard built so that the more relaxed patients can safely go outside."

Ty Lee opened her mouth to speak but was quickly cut off by the head-nurse. "Now, I was told I should prepare you for your visit to the princess." The acrobat nodded. "Well alright then. Where to begin?" Tomiko opened a drawer on her side of the desk and pulled out a rather large notebook.

"Alright," the nurse started flipping though the pages. "The patient's behavior can vary from day to day and there is not real way in which we can know how she will act. Sometimes she is violent and sometimes she seems afraid of her own shadow, but most of the time she is in a catatonic state."

There was a short silence while Tomiko observed Ty Lee's reaction. "Would you like me to explain what that means?" she finally asked.

"Yes please," Ty Lee answered, blushing slightly.

"Well, the easiest way to describe it is to say that she is unresponsive. She doesn't speak, she doesn't move, she doesn't do anything."

_This isn't good. _The pit in Ty Lee's stomach was growing and every word the head-nurse spoke was like oil on a flame, only making it worse. "She doesn't move at all? N-nothing?"

"I'm afraid not," Tomiko sighs. "She hasn't even stood on her own legs for the past four months. She just lays or sits on the floor."

Despite the lump that was already forming in the acrobat's throat she forced herself to ask further. "What else."

"When the patient arrived here two years ago she was completely out of control," Tomiko was quick to answer. "We were forced to put her in a straight jacket, which she still wears for security reasons. We've also-"

"What!" Ty Lee said a bit louder than she had intended to. "You keep her in a straight jacket so that she can barely move for your _safety_!" _She's supposed to be a patient, not a prisoner!_

Tomiko stared at her for a moment. The look on her face was one Ty Lee had seen many times before. She was looking at her like she thought she was a complete idiot.

"We do not restrain her for _our _safety, but for hers."

"Ooh really?" Ty Lee scoffed. "And how exactly could it be good for her to basically be tied up?"

"I was getting to that actually," Tomiko said in an annoyed tone. Her overly friendly smile had vanished and the acrobat wondered if maybe she'd been a bit rude.

"As I said," Tomiko continued. "When she first arrived here she was completely out of control. She attacked anyone who got near her and tried to light _everything _on fire. After about a week she'd calmed down slightly, but then she began clawing furiously at the wall in an attempt to get out. We stopped her, but not before she'd lost the majority of her fingernails." Ty Lee cringed. She had no idea things were so bad. But it wasn't over. "And the final straw was when she tried to tear her own eyes ou-"

"STOP!"

The acrobat pleaded the nurse to stop talking as she covered her ears with her palms. She couldn't listen to this. It couldn't be true. It couldn't! But she knew it was.

_Listen to yourself! You can't take listening to this? She's been living like this for two years._

_ In_ _pain._

_ Alone. _

She straightened herself and looked Tomiko dead in the eyes. "I want to see her," she said in the most confident voice she could muster. "Now."

* * *

A bolted metal door, Imperial Firebenders on either side. Few sources of light besides the small torches on the walls. It was exactly the same, down to the last detail. Even the shadows cast by the guards and the cracks in the walls felt like the were identical. She remembered the last time she was there, and she felt the exact same feelings as she did now. She was inclined to just run away again. But no, this time she would be strong. This time she'd actually try to help.

Her trip up the spiral hall to the princess' cell had been much less ceremonious than the last time. It might have had something to do with the fact that the last time she'd been accompanied by the Fire Lord's wife. Although she didn't receive as much attention as before she did notice the occasional odd glance from the nurses in the hall. _They must know who I'm visiting, then. _

Tomiko and two guards walked behind her down the small corridor that lead into the center of the building. They stopped in front of the second steel door, the one Ty Lee remembered lead into the_ patient's room._

"The patient has been catatonic since she woke up and I expect her to remain so. I am going to let you go in alone, but I will be watching through a lid in the door. We are hoping that seeing you will elect some reaction from her," Tomiko told her in an all too happy manner. Ty Lee did not much like the idea of her reunion with Azula being watched, but she guessed it was the best she was going to get. Mistaking the acrobat's frown as reluctance, the head-nurse was quick to add, "Don't worry. You will be in no danger at all." Ty Lee jerked her head in a nod. _Just let me in already. _

Tomiko motioned for one of the guards to open the lock on the door and he quickly obeyed. Tomiko gave Ty Lee an encouraging pat on the back as the acrobat started slowly entering the cell. It didn't help in the slightest.

It occurred to her that this was in fact the first time she got a good look at the inside of her friends new habitat. It wasn't a very large room, a little larger than her bedroom back at Kyoshi Island, but it was split in two by vertical metal bars going from floor to ceiling. The half opposite to the entrance had padded walls, floor and ceiling and it even looked like the metal bars were covered in the softer material on that side as well. Otherwise the room was the same as the rest of the structure, white marble.

The whole place was illuminated only by a single torch on the wall next to the door. Ty Lee could just barely see several small holes at the top of each wall which she assumed were part of the ventilation system Tomiko had talked about. Her eyes moved across the cell and she realized there wasn't a single piece of furniture there, not even a mattress.

And then there was _her. _

Ty Lee's heart skipped a beat when her eyes finally landed on the person she'd come her to visit. It was not a pretty sight. She had trouble to believe that the miserable looking bundle on the floor was Azula, but she knew it had to be. There were just so many things off about her. She was lying in the center of her cell's floor in the fetal position, arms constrained in the yellow-white straight jacket. Her skin looked much paler than the acrobat remembered it but there was one other, much more noticeable change. She was so very thin. Azula had always been lean and muscular and in her naivety Ty Lee had never really thought about whether the princess' appearance would have changed, but looking at her friend now, she thought she understood the meaning of the phrase _'_skin and bones'. _Haven't they been feeding her? _

But the most disturbing thing of all was one only Ty Lee could see. She'd expected Azula's aura to be streaked with black like when they were children and the princess felt bad, but she never imagined anything like this.

Her aura was completely black and still. It almost blended with the shadows in the corners of the dark cell. So thin, pale and a barely visible aura. She looked like a corpse.

Lip quivering, Ty Lee sat down as close to metal bars as she could. She reached out with her hand between the bars and could just barely touch the princess. Azula's hair was a tattered and uneven mess hanging in clumps like a dark curtain completely covering her face. The acrobat gently brushed her friend's hair away but quickly pulled back, startled to see that Azula's eyes were wide open, almost unnaturally so. It was very unsettling, even more so because of the fact that her eyes seemed empty, almost dead. Other than that it also looked like her eyes were a little to large for the rest of her now gaunt face, and while her cheekbones had always been prominent they were now showing dangerously much.

Ty Lee sat there for a moment, the princess' eyes fixed on her. She slowly moved back to the metal bars but the prisoner's eyes didn't move in the slightest, not even a twitch.

"Azula?" Ty Lee reached out to her friend again. "Azula, can you hear me?"

_Nothing. _

Placing her hand on Azula's cheek, the acrobat's eyes welled up when she realized that her friend was both covered in beads of cold sweat and was shaking uncontrollably.

The little acrobat was on the verge of breaking down. _Come on Ty, keep it together. For her. _

"Azula? Azula, please!" Ty Lee placed her hand on her friend's shoulder, shaking er slightly. Despite her inner protest her eyes were filling with tears. "Please talk to me!" The princess didn't respond and her vacant gaze never faltered.

That was the final straw. Ty Lee couldn't take it. It had been two years since she last saw her best friend and now that she was here it looked like Mai was right all along. Azula was gone. She reached out and pulled the princess as close as she could, cradling her through the bars. "I'm so sorry Azula!" she cried out, rocking her back and forth as much as the cold metal would allow her. Then it started. The screaming.

She fell back onto the floor as a horrifying shrike erupted from Azula's throat. As she let go of her, the princess started screaming and thrashing around, her eyes stayed wide open as ever, but now they were filled with horror. She couldn't make out any words other than the occasional cry that sounded very similar to 'mother'.

"I'M SORRY" Ty Lee cried back at her when suddenly she felt a gentle hand rest on her shoulder. She quickly looked up to see that Tomiko and the Imperial Firebenders had entered the cell, she hadn't even noticed. "That's quite enough dear," the head-nurse said. "The patient needs her rest."

The guards entered the cell and as one of them moved to hold Azula down, the other one pulled a syringe out of a small bag on his belt. Using both his arms and knees to hold the patient as still as possible one of them motioned for the other to inject her.

"No, what are you doing! Leave her alone!" Ty Lee shouted. She felt Tomiko's grip on her shoulder become more firm. "We have to do this, child. She sometimes has these fits and the only alternative to sedating her is to allow her to thrash around and hurt herself," she spoke as they watched the guards stick the sharp needle in the patients neck and a few moments later her body went limp and her eyelids began to lower.

Tomiko helped the miserable little acrobat on her feet and slowly led her out of the cell to the hallway. She explained how Azula would not be up for a few hours and it would be pointless to wait for her to come to. She then escorted the still trembling and weeping Ty Lee down to the main entrance and bade her good day, asking her to send another messenger hawk if she intended to visit again.

Ty Lee walked slowly down to the small pier where the ferry waited, lost in her thoughts. SHe didn't even know what to make of what she had seen yet. Should she even bother to visit again, was there any point? Was the friend she knew even still alive? Her mind raced, but she never managed to come to any concrete conclusion.

There was only one thing she kept thinking back to. One thing that remained there in the back of her head. She'd almost seen Azula in one of her fits when she attempted to visit her two years back, and then when she saw her today there was one tiny difference that she somehow couldn't let go.

_Where was the fire? _

* * *

**_Wow, finally I am able to reach this point! It's only a few chapters but it's been MONTHS since I started writing this. I do once again apologize for how late this is, I have been swamped with other things to do. I don't have much else to say other than I hope you like it and I would love it if you wrote reviews to tell me what you think, even very short ones are fine. _**

**_Peace out!_**


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